Nearly 75% of Homes are Affordable
It’s prime time for house hunters, as more than 72% of American families making the nation’s median income ($63,8000 a year) could afford to buy a home during the first three months of 2010. The national median home price for the quarter was $175,000.
"Homeownership continues its more than year-long trend of remaining within reach of more households than it has for almost two decades," said NAHB chairman Bob Jones. "With interest rates still hovering at low levels, companies starting to hire new employees and the economy beginning to rebound, this should encourage more home buyers to enter the market and help further stabilize housing and the economy."
The NAHB judges a home to be affordable if a family making the metro area's median income could devote no more than 28% of their take-home pay toward housing costs.