More than 64 percent of all homes sold in the first quarter in the Boston metro area were affordable to households earning the area’s median family income of $85,233, according to a new report.
That’s up from the fourth quarter of 2009, when 62 percent of all homes sold in the Boston metro area, which includes Quincy, were affordable. Nationally, the Boston metro area ranked 193rd in affordability out of 225 metro areas.
The median price of homes sold in the area went down to $270,000 in the first quarter, from $290,000 in the fourth quarter of 2009. This compares to a median price of $242,000 in the first quarter of 2009.
Nationwide housing, bolstered by favorable interest rates and low house prices, hovered for the fifth consecutive quarter near its highest level of affordability since the series was first compiled 19 years ago, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI).
The HOI showed that 72.2 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the first quarter of 2010 were affordable to families earning the national median income of $63,800, slightly higher than the previous quarter and near the record-high 72.5 percent set during the first quarter a year ago.
"[The] report is very encouraging because it indicates that 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, a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. "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."
In the Cambridge-Newton-Framingham metro area, almost 66 percent of homes sold in the first quarter were affordable to households earning the area’s median family income of $98,643. In the same period last year, 71 percent of homes sold were "affordable," the report found.
In the Barnstable area, more than 54 percent of homes sold in the first quarter were affordable to households earning the area’s median family income of $75,300.
More than 71 percent of homes sold in the first quarter in the Pittsfield area were affordable. The median family income for households in the western part of the state was $65,700. That’s down from the same period in 2009, when 78.8 percent of homes were "affordable." Notably, the median price in the area has increased to $170,000, up from $141,000 in the same period last year.
Indianapolis-Carmel and Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa., shared the ranking as the most affordable major housing markets in the country. In Indianapolis, which has held this top ranking for nearly five years, almost 95 percent of all homes sold were affordable to households earning the area’s median family income of $68,700. In Youngstown, the same percentage of homes were affordable to households earning a median $53,500.
Also near the top of the list of the most affordable major metro housing markets were Syracuse, N.Y.; Dayton, Ohio; and Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Mich.
New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J., continued to lead the nation as its least affordable major housing market during the first quarter of 2010. Slightly less than 21 percent of all homes sold during the quarter were affordable to those earning the New York area’s median income of $65,600. This was the eighth consecutive quarter that the New York metropolitan division has occupied this position.
