San Francisco is no longer the least affordable housing market

After almost five years San Francisco has been supplanted as the nation's least affordable housing market

San Francisco is no longer the least affordable housing market
After almost five years San Francisco has been supplanted as the nation’s least affordable housing market.

Data from the National Association of Home Builders / Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index reveals that Los Angeles has taken the dubious crown as the least affordable.

Nationwide, the share of new and existing homes sold in the third quarter of 2017 that were deemed affordable for families earning the US median income of $68,000 was 58.3%, showing weakening affordability compared to the second quarter (59.4%).

In Los Angeles, just 9.1% of homes were affordable based on the area’s median family income of $64,300.

San Francisco slipped to second place while the bottom of the index includes three other Californian markets: Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine; San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara; and Santa Rosa.

“Solid economic growth, along with ongoing quarterly job gains and rising household formations, are fueling housing demand,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “Tight inventories and a forecast of rising mortgage interest rates through 2018 will keep home prices on a gradual upward path and slowly lessen housing affordability in the quarters ahead.”

The most affordable major markets in the third quarter were led by Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa. where the median income of $54,600 would make 90.1% of homes affordable.

Completing the top 5 were: Syracuse, N.Y.; Scranton-Wilkes Barre-Hazleton, Pa.; Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, Ind.; and Wilmington, Del.-Md.-N.J., which tied for the fifth spot with Cincinnati, Ohio-Ky.-Ind.