The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) recently reported that housing affordability remained essentially flat throughout 2017. According to the report, 59.6% of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of October and end of December were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $68k – slightly up from Q3 and almost the same as Q4 of 2016. The data was part of the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI), which is a measure of the percentage of homes sold in a given area that are affordable to families earning the area’s median income during a specific quarter. Prices of new and existing homes sold are collected from actual court records by Core Logic, a data and analytics company. Mortgage financing conditions incorporate interest rates on fixed- and adjustable-rate loans reported by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
“Builder confidence and consumer demand remain strong, and this should help bring more buyers into the marketplace in the year ahead,” said NAHB Chairman Randy Noel, a custom home builder from LaPlace, La. “At the same time, builders are working hard to keep home prices affordable as they continue to grapple with persistent labor and lot shortages, burdensome regulations and rising costs for building materials…”
Click here to read the full report at NAHB.org.
