Counties with the highest
affordability index were Warren County (Allentown), New Jersey (151); Mercer County (Trenton), New Jersey (147); Cumberland (Vineland), New Jersey (144); Onslow (Jacksonville), North Carolina (142); and Litchfield (Torrington), Connecticut (139).
The NAR
Affordability Index uses a scale of 0 to 200 to rate affordability, with higher scores indicating more affordable markets and lower scores indicating less affordable ones.
Year-to-date, sales are down 0.8 percent and prices are up 7.4 percent and the
affordability index is down 18.5 percent.
Compared to 2008 data, Yung said the current prices adjusted for GDP growth and the
affordability index aren't showing extreme values.
Attom Data Solutions, which bills itself as the curator of the nation's premier property database, created an
affordability index based on publicly recorded home sale prices as well as average wage data from the U.S.
Irmo's
affordability index was 50.21, with a median income of $58,446.
These communities were ranked on an
affordability index weighing property taxes, homeowners' insurance fees and mortgage payments relative to income, according to data released by SmartAsset.
The report calculates an
affordability index based on percentage of income needed to buy a median-priced home relative to historic averages.
The study's
affordability index accounts for property taxes, homeowners' insurance fees and mortgage payments relative to income.
ATTOM assigned an
affordability index of 84 to Canyon County and 86 to Ada County on a scale where less than 0 is less affordable than the historic average.
Baltimore had the second-highest
affordability index in the U.S.
Using an
affordability index adjusting prices for inflation and income growth, the IAS report suggests that increases in affordability since 2012 could be attributed to alcohol tax cuts.
