Buffalo Mortgages Rank High on Housing Affordability Chart

While many seeking a New York mortgage in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area may be scared off by constant snowstorms, here’s some good news:

• That housing market remains near the top of the nation’s affordability chart

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) again placed Buffalo-Niagara Falls in the top five when factoring in median prices and median family income.

Indianapolis claimed the most-affordable title for the fifth consecutive quarter as just under 86 percent of homes sold in the third quarter were affordable to families earning the median household income of $65,100.

The median sales price of all homes sold in the metro area during that time was $122,000 - up slightly from $120,000 in the previous quarter. Nevertheless, it was a reasonable figure for anyone seeking home mortgages in the city.

In the Buffalo area, the median home price last quarter was pegged at $88,000, while the median family income was $58,300, making 83 percent of homes affordable, according to the HOI.

Meanwhile, The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale region of Southern California was the nation’s least affordable major housing market for the eighth consecutive quarter.

The report said only 1.8 percent of new and existing homes sold during the third quarter were affordable to those earning the area’s median family income of $56,200. The median sales price of all homes sold in the area during the period was $523,000.

This is a stark contrast to the Idaho mortgage market, one of the nation’s more affordable regions.

On a national basis, 40.4 percent of all new and existing homes sold during the third quarter were affordable to families earning the median U.S. income of $59,600. The report said housing affordability remained virtually unchanged from the second quarter despite a sizeable increase in the average mortgage interest rates for the July-September period.