Charlotte a little less affordable

Listen to this article

The affordability of Charlotte’s housing has reached its lowest point since the second quarter of 2011, according to an index released Thursday by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo.

In the third quarter, 67.2 percent of new and existing homes sold were affordable to families earning the area’s median income, $64,200, according to the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. The median price of a Charlotte area home was $189,000.

That’s a drop of 1.7 percentage points from the second quarter, when 68.9 percent of homes were considered affordable, and 3.5 percentage points from a year ago, when 70.2 percent of homes were affordable to median-income families.

That’s the Charlotte area’s lowest level of housing affordability since the second quarter of 2011, when homes were affordable to 65.8 percent of families. In the last 10 years, Charlotte area homes were most affordable in the first quarter of 2013, when 80.3 percent were affordable to families earning the median income. At that time, the median home price was $152,000 and the median income was higher than now, at $68,500.

In the third quarter, the Charlotte area’s housing was more affordable than the national average of 61.8 percent, but it ranked 142nd out of the nation’s 227 markets included in the report.

In the South, Charlotte ranked 51^st in affordability out of 64 metro areas. Only Asheville was ranked lower in North Carolina, at 54^th; the Raleigh-Cary area ranked 45^th.

The least affordable area in the South was Austin, Texas, where 61.2 percent of homes were affordable to residents with the median income. The most affordable area was in Cumberland, Md., and part of West Virginia, where 94.8 percent of homes were affordable. That area tied with Kokomo, Ind., among areas with smaller populations for the most affordable. Napa, Calif., was the least affordable among areas with smaller populations; only 10.2 percent of homes could comfortably be purchased by families making the median income.

Nationally, the median income was $63,900 and the median home price was $221,000 in the third quarter.

“Even with nationwide home prices reaching their highest level since the end of 2007, affordability still remains fairly high by historical standards,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “Rising employment and incomes, interest rates that remain near historically low levels, and pent-up demand should contribute to positive momentum heading into next year.”

The Youngstown, Ohio area, which includes some of western Pennsylvania, was the most affordable area in the county, where homes were affordable to 89.1 percent of people. The median income was $52,700.

The least affordable, for the eighth consecutive quarter, was the San Francisco, San Mateo and Redwood City area of California, where homes were affordable to just 11.4 percent of families, who earned a median income of $100,400.