The Los Angeles/Long Beach market ranked as the sixth least affordable housing market in the nation, according to a report recently issued by Economy.com. The report, which placed 20 California communities among the 30 least affordable in the U.S., found that Angelenos earning the region’s median income can only afford 57 percent of the median-priced home in the market.

The report said the median priced home in the market was $452,800 in the third quarter of 2004, 19 percent higher than the like year-earlier period. At the same time, the median household income needed to afford that house at prevailing mortgage rates was $87,297. In the year-ago period, the median household income stood at $77,403, 12.7 percent lower.

In the year-earlier quarter, median-income households could afford 63 percent of the median-priced home.

Highest on the list was Salinas, whose families could only afford 49 percent of median-priced homes in the area. Yolo was the best-ranked California city on the least affordable list, with its families able to buy 97 percent of a home.

Economy.com found that the average U.S. family can afford 129 percent of a median-priced home, which is actually 16 percent less house than in 2003.