WorldPropertyChannel tells MHProNews.com that the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) indicates strengthening house prices means slightly lower housing affordability in the second quarter of 2012. The HOI data revealed that 73.8 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the second quarter were affordable to families earning the national median income of $65,000. This is down from the record high 77.5 percent of homes affordable to median-income earners in the first quarter. “While interest rates and overall housing affordability remain very favorable on a historic basis, the decline in the latest HOI is a positive development because it is another signal that the housing recovery is starting to take root, and it lends needed confidence to prospective buyers and sellers who have been reluctant to move forward in the current marketplace,” said NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg, a home builder from Gainesville, FL The change in affordability was largely attributed to rising prices in metros across the country. A full 92 percent of metros in the latest HOI saw median home prices rise from the first and second quarter of 2012. ##
