Sacramento: California’s Best Location For Affordable Housing

Have you considered a Sacramento mortgage?

If you’re thinking of settling in California, you might want to. About two of every five first-time home buyers could afford a home during the fourth quarter in Sacramento County, a slight increase from the third quarter - and a much better rate than home-shoppers statewide.

The county’s affordability index inched up to 41 percent, from 38 percent in the third quarter and 40 percent in fourth-quarter 2005, according to a California Association of Realtors report released Friday.

The county earned the highest affordability rating in the state, tied with Fresno County and the High Desert, which includes the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale. Unlike much of the Golden State, a home loan in Sacramento isn’t impossible to come by for middle-class wage earners.

In terms of the entire California housing market, the affordability index improved to 25 percent, compared with 24 percent in third-quarter 2006 - and a bit lower than the 27 percent rate in fourth-quarter 2005.

Exorbitant California home loan costs mean Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Francisco counties have the lowest affordability rates - at 19 percent - in the state.

The affordability rate for first-time home buyers is based on the county’s median home price and the median income.

Sacramento County’s affordable housing ranking is based on a median home price of $310,340 and median annual income of $62,900.

The average figures above would result in a monthly California mortgage payment of approximately $2,100, including property taxes and insurance.

SOURCE: Sacramento Business Journal