IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Housing affordability in California rose slightly during the third quarter, the result of a drop in market competition and a rise in available housing.
Seventeen percent of the state’s households could afford the median price of an existing single-family home – $887,380 – in the quarter that ended Sept. 30, according to the California Association of Realtors.
That was up from 15 percent in the first quarter, and 16 percent year-over-year.
An annual income of at least $223,600 was needed to make monthly mortgage payments of $5,590. That included principal, interest, taxes and insurance on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, and is based on a 6.6 interest rate.
Twenty-seven percent of California’s home buyers could buy a $649,990 median-priced condominium or townhome during the third quarter. For that a minimum annual income of $163,600 was needed to make monthly payments of $4,090.
Affordability in the third quarter was less than one-third of what it was in the third quarter of 2012, when California’s affordability index peaked at 56 percent.
In the Inland Empire, where the median price was $595,000, 23 percent of the households could afford an existing single-family home, up from 21 percent quarter-over-quarter and 22 percent year-over-year, the association reported.
