Affordability is being crunched in 68 percent of, or 304 out of 446, counties in the U.S., according to ATTOM Data Solutions Q1 2018 U.S. Home Affordability Report. Buyers, in other words, are not earning enough to make monthly payments on a property.
Analysts at ATTOM considered a 3 percent down payment and a 28 percent maximum front-end debt-to-income ratio, as well as data on wages from the Labor Department. The findings? In addition to 68 percent of markets tagged as unaffordable, there is a gap between the appreciation of home prices and growth in wages in 83 percent of markets (370 of 446), including in at least three California counties: Los Angeles County, Orange County and San Diego County.
Affordability is also worse year-over-year in 73 percent of markets (326 of 446), according to the report. Affordability has dwindled the most in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego counties in California, and in Miami-Dade County, Fla., and Queens County, N.Y.
Forty-one percent of markets (181 of 446), meanwhile, are not as affordable as they were historically, including, again, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, as well as Dallas and Harris counties in Texas and Kings County, N.Y.
There are areas, however, that are more in-reach. Fifty-nine percent of markets (265 of 446) are more affordable than they were historically, including Cook County, Ill., Maricopa County, Ariz., and King County, Wash.
Source: ATTOM Data Solutions
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