According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI), in the final quarter of 2012 74.9 percent of all homes sold in the U. S. were affordable to households making the U. S. median income of $65,000, up from 74.1 percent in the previous quarter. NAHB Chairman Rick Judson, noting that homeownership is within reach of the middle class, says 259 of 361 metro markets are improving. NAHB chief economist David Crowe says it’s significant that affordability remains steady even as home values rise. “The median price of all new and existing homes sold in the fourth quarter of 2012 was $188,000, essentially unchanged from the previous quarter’s $189,000 that marked a nearly three-year high,” he says. Ogden-Clearfield, Utah was the nation’s most affordable metro area with 93.7 percent of all the new and existing houses sold affordable to those earning the household median income in the area of $71,500. As MHProNews has learned, following in affordability, in order, are Dayton, OH; Indianapolis/Carmel, IN; Lakeland/WinterHaven, FL; and Syracuse, NY.
