California’s housing affordability increased in the fourth quarter due to the glut of foreclosures that have flooded the market in recent years, marking the highest level of affordability since the California index began.
Sutter County and Yuba County were once again California’s most affordable metro area with 92.5% affordability, up from 89.3% in the third quarter, according to data provided by the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo (WFC) housing index. The least affordable metro area for the 13th consecutive quarter was the San Franscisco, San Mateo and Marin County area. It qualifies as the third least affordable metro area in the country, with just 37.1% of homes sold qualifying as affordable to a family earning the median income.
A family earning the median income could have afforded 66.2% of the new and existing homes sold statewide in California in the fourth quarter, up from 63.5% in the third quarter, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index released by the California Building Industry Association.
The numbers mark the highest level of statewide affordability since the California-specific index began in 2007. Nationally, 75.9% of new and existing homes sold in the fourth quarter were affordable to median income families, marking the highest level in the 20 years of the index.
