
Flickr/Kla4067
The nation’s least affordable major housing market is now Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif., surpassing the San Francisco metro market after two years at the top of the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, only 11.3% of homes sold in the Los Angeles metro were affordable to families earning the area’s median income – $73,100. To contrast, 63.2% of new and existing homes sold in the last quarter were affordable to families earning the national median income of $75,500.
All five least affordable small housing markets were also in the Golden State. At the very bottom of the affordability chart was Salinas, where 11.8% of all new and existing homes sold were affordable to families earning the area’s median income of $74,100.
Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, Ind. was rated the nation’s most affordable major housing market, defined as a metro with a population of at least 500,000. There, 91.5% of all new and existing homes sold in the fourth quarter were affordable to families earning the area’s median income of $79,900.