NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home prices continue to tumble across the country, making homes more affordable in most U.S. cities, according to a new report released Tuesday.
Nationally, 55% of homes sold from April through June were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $61,500, according to a quarterly report released Tuesday by the National Association of Home Builders.
That's up from 53.8% in the first quarter of 2008, and the most affordable home prices have been since the second quarter of 2004.
"Several factors combined to increase housing affordability nationwide. There was a marginal rise in mortgage rates, which still remain near the historically low levels of a few years ago, family income nationwide held steady, and lower house prices," said NAHB President Sandy Dunn in a press release.
Indianapolis led the the nation's major metro areas in home affordability for the 12th straight quarter. The median price of homes sold during the second quarter was $108,000, down from $122,000 last year. And 91.6% of the households there earning the median income of $65,100 could afford to buy a median priced home. That's up from 86.8% last year.
New York was the least affordable major housing market in the country, according to the report. It was the first time that a major metropolitan area outside of California was the least affordable home market in the 17-year history of the report.
In New York, the median home price fell slightly year over year to $481,000 from $510,00. That led to an increase in affordability; 11.4% of households earning the median income of $63,000 could afford to buy a median priced home, up from 6.3% in the second quarter of 2007.
Despite that change, New York still fell to the least affordable area from second-least affordable last year, according to this survey.
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[Via Home Mortgage Rates and Real Estate News]
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