Source: San Jose Mercury News –
California housing affordability remained in check in the third quarter of 2014 due to lower interest rates and smaller home price gains, according to the California Association of Realtors. Affordability even improved in some high-cost counties in the San Francisco Bay region during the July-September period of this year.
The percentage of home buyers who could afford to buy a median-price, existing single-family home in California in third quarter 2014 was unchanged from the 30 percent recorded in the second quarter of 2014, but it was down from a revised 32 percent in third quarter 2013, according to the state Realtor group’s Traditional Housing Affordability Index.
This is the sixth consecutive quarter that the index was below 40 percent. The index measures the percentage of all households that can afford to purchase a median-price, single-family home in California.