Median home prices during the first quarter of 2018 were not affordable for average wage earners in 68 percent of counties throughout the country, according to ATTOM Data Solutions Home Affordability Report.
The reported analyzed 446 counties throughout the nation and found median prices in 304 of the counties were not affordable for average wage earners. ATTOM determined affordability by calculating the amount of income needed to make monthly house payments — including mortgage, property taxes and insurance — on a median-priced home, assuming a 3 percent down payment and a 28 percent maximum “front-end” debt-to-income ratio.
ATTOM said some of the counties where median-priced homes were not affordable for average wage earners were Los Angeles County; Maricopa County (Phoenix); San Diego County; Orange County, Calif.; and Miami-Dade County.
“Coastal markets are the epicenter of the U.S. home affordability crisis, but affordability aftershocks are now being felt further inland as housing refugees migrate from the high-cost coastal markets to lower-priced markets in the middle of the country where good jobs are available,” ATTOM Data Solutions Senior Vice President Daren Blomquist said in a release accompanying the report. “That, in turn, is pushing home prices above historically normal affordability limits in those middle-America markets.”
The 32 percent of counties where median-priced homes were still affordable for average wage earners included Cook County (Chicago); Harris County (Houston); Dallas County; Wayne County (Detroit); and Philadelphia County, the report found.
The counties with the highest affordability index were Atlantic County (Atlantic City); Baltimore City; Camden County, N.J.; Cuyahoga County (Cleveland); and Howard County, Md.
According to the report, average wage earners needed to spend the highest share of income to buy a median-priced home during the first quarter in Kings County (Brooklyn); Santa Cruz County, Calif.; Marin County, Calif.; Maui County, Hawaii; and New York County (Manhattan).
ATTOM found average wage earner needed to spend the lowest share of income to buy a median-priced home during the first quarter in Baltimore City; Bibb County, Ga.; Wayne County (Detroit); Clayton County, Ga.; and Rock Island County, Ill. (13.4 percent).