Affordability Hangs Tough Despite Rising Prices | Pound Ridge Real Estate

Despite the greatest price increases in years, affordability has hardly budged from six year peaks and in many of the nation’s most expensive markets, it’s still rising.

Year-over-year price increases through the final months of last year, which range from 4.5 percent/5.5 percent for the Case-Shiller composites to NAR’s 11.5 percent, have made less than a dent in soaring affordability ratings, especially in some of the nation’s most expensive markets in California and the Northeast.

The NAHB/ Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index has fallen only 4.3 percent from its January 2012 high.  NAR’s Housing Affordability Index is down only 4.6 percent from its multi-year peak in January 2012.  Both measures use median income levels, interest rates and home price data to calculate affordability on national and local levels.

However, in many markets, especially the nation’s most expensive housing markets, affordability is still rising.  These include San Francisco, Boston, San Diego, Washington DC, Las Vegas, West Palm Beach, New York City, Orlando and Sacramento.  In some, the pace of increase have slowed, but none have registered two consecutive quarters of affordability decline, as measured by Home Value Forecast’s Affordability Forecast, which uses regional household income trends with interest rates and local housing prices and to calculate the proportion of local households that can afford the median priced house