Home prices in the United States are the
most affordable they have been in 18 years, according to the National
Association of Home Builders and the Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity.
The NAHB said that affordable interest rates and low prices helped the
affordability rates during the second quarter of 2009.
The
report also showed that 72.3 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the
second quarter of 2009 were affordable to families earning the national median
income of $64,000, down only slightly from the record-high of 72.5 percent during
the previous quarter and up from 55 percent during the second quarter of 2008.
“The
increase in affordability - along with the $8,000 federal tax credit for home
buyers - is stimulating demand, particularly among young, first-time buyers,”
said NAHB Chairman Joe Robson, a home builder from Tulsa, Okla. “But to keep
the recent upturn in home sales going into next year, Congress will need to
extend the tax credit for another year and make it available to all buyers in
an effort to encourage activity in the trade-up market.”
Robson
noted that the tax credit, which expires on Nov. 30, is currently limited to
just buyers purchasing their first home.
Indianapolis was
once again determined to be the most affordable major housing market in the
country during the second quarter. Almost 95 percent of all homes sold were
affordable to households earning the area’s median family income of $68,100. Indianapolis has now
topped the affordability list for 16 consecutive quarters.
