More Than Half of Listings Are ‘Affordable

More Than Half of Listings Are ‘Affordable’

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2015

Fifty-four percent of for-sale listings of existing homes are within reach for a median-income household in the U.S., according to a new analysis by realtor.com®. Their analysts used the national median income of $51,801 to determine how many of the site's 1.6 million listings would be affordable to an average family, while also assuming a 20 percent down payment and 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. The monthly payment couldn’t exceed 28 percent of the family’s income.

Affordable homes were mostly centered in inland areas of the U.S., such as Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, as well as other Midwestern states. Affordability was also found to be highest in parts of Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.

On the other hand, home buyers likely will find homes less affordable in places like the San Luis-Obispo-Paso Robles area -- California's Central Coast wine territory -- where less than 4 percent of February's listings were affordable, according to realtor.com®'s analysis.

Realtor.com® analysts also found that existing homes tended to be much more affordable than new homes. In February, realtor.com® had more than 7,700 actively selling new-home communities listed, with an inventory of nearly 57,000 homes available for sale. Only 21 percent of those new homes, however, were deemed affordable.

Source:

 "Where America’s Affordable Homes Are – and Aren’t – in 2015," realtor.com® (March 19, 2015)