Los Angeles maintained its firm grip on the unenviable title as the nation’s least affordable housing market in the fourth quarter of last year, according to a survey of released Thursday, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
This is the ninth consecutive quarter that the Los Angeles/Long Beach area anchored the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.
In the October-through-December period, just 2 percent of the homes sold here were affordable to families earning a median income of $56,200. The median priced house in that time cost $525,000.
By comparison, 40.4 percent of homes sold nationwide in the last quarter were affordable to families earning the median income of $59,600. But the national median price averaged $248,000 during the quarter.
California also accounted for 18 of the nation’s 20 least affordable markets and the top seven least affordable, according to the index.