Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Midwest Is Home to Most-Affordable Housing
The only drawback: You have to live there ...Wednesday, March 1, 2006REALTOR® Magazine OnlineThe Midwest is the place to be for buyers looking for affordable homes, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.Indianapolis tops the list of affordable major housing markets. The median sales price of all Indianapolis homes sold in 2005 was $120,000. The next most affordable major markets are Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa.; followed by Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich.; Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Mich.; and Dayton, Ohio.The Midwest also dominated the most affordable housing markets with fewer than 500,000 people. Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, Iowa-Ill., was tops, followed by the metro areas of Cumberland, Md.-W.Va.; Lima, Ohio; Mansfield, Ohio; and Lansing-East Lansing, Mich.At the bottom of the affordability scale was Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif. The median price of all homes sold in that area was an even $500,000. The rest of the bottom of the affordability scale included the usual large California metro areas: Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine; San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos; and Stockton. New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J., rounded out the list of the five least-affordable major housing markets.Among cities smaller than 500,000 people, Merced, Calif., was lowest on the list and the second least affordable market overall. Other small cities in the unaffordable column included Modesto, Salinas, Santa Barbara-Santa Maria, and Santa Cruz-Watsonville, Calif.Labels: Corona, Foreclosure, Home Prices, Inland Empire, Loan Modification, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Real Estate, Riverside, Short Sales, Statistics, Temecula
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