Economists at Wells Fargo Bank and the National Association of Home Builders say Orange County homes were the 10th least affordable to buy in the nation in the second quarter. The good news is that this ranking is an improvement over eighth worst in the previous quarter and O.C.’s nadir with a second-place finish in the first quarter of 2007 and quarters 1 and 2 of 2006. That’s what’s charted in graphic at right.
Wells/NAHB estimated that 23% of the local homes sold in the quarter were affordable to the typical O.C. household’s budget. That’s up from 17.4% in the first quarter and the 2.5% low hit in the second quarter of 2006. Clearly falling home prices are in play here. By this math, O.C. home prices are off 29% in a year and down 31% from the peak in 2006’s second quarter.
New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J. was the nation’s least affordable major housing market in Q2 — just 11.4% of its homes sold were “affordable.” It’s the first time any big city outside of California won the “least affordable” gold medal since this index started in 1991. Others on the Q2 bottom: San Francisco, L.A., Miami and and Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y. (Read release HERE!)
Nationwide, 55% of homes sold were “affordable” nearly the highest level since the second quarter of 2004. Indianapolis was “most affordable” with 91.6% of its homes sold being “affordable.”
- 1 parent, 2 kids need $66,966 salary to afford O.C.
- O.C. buyers go ga-ga for fixed-rate loans
- Wishful thinking on home values?
- O.C. homes seen undervalued, 1st time since ‘03
- O.C. homes 20% too pricey, by this math
- Anaheim adds affordable apartments
- House payments a worry around the globe
Find out more about: HOME PRICES | FOR-SALE INVENTORY | RENTS | FED | MORTGAGE RATES | FORECLOSURES | OUR POLLS | GARDENS
Mully:
See my post on the other board regarding coffee
TO ALL:
Still need 3 x the National Median Income to make it happen in..
LA/OC/SF/NYC
What do all these places have in common..??
JOBS..!!
Are you sure, Jon? From what i see, it is sixth least affordable (tenth is Seattle)
hey scott a - if jobs are so great here please explain why we just set a new record for foreclosures last month– enquiring minds
want to know–
It’s called a premium.
Prices will fall below the level of median income support; they will overshoot to the downside and bottom at “market clearing” prices.
High inventory, high unemployment, scarcity of credit, scarcity of qualified buyers and poor sentiment will guarantee this outcome to take place.
Massive Alt-A and Interest Only mortgage resets are looking us in the face.
There is no doubt we will be flooded with a new wave of inventory and with that inventory will come price drops overshooting to the downside.
Scott A Says: August 19th, 2008 at 2:41 pm LA/OC/SF/NYC, What do all these places have in common..?? JOBS..!!
LOL!! ANOTHER DELUSIONIST ON SCENE. THANKS FOR THE GOOD LAUGH THOUGH …. GROUPING LA/OC WITH SF AND NYC.
It is just so fun watching the delusion being ripped from these poor fools faces. Day by day it happens. Not Schadenfreude, but a love of the truth.
The idea that the typical OC house was worth 730K. What lunacy, and yet people believed it. Soon: 300K. Now that will be real.
I worked as a loan processor for a few years and we all knew that a lot of these Liar Loans (Stated Income) were baloney. How can a janitor make $125,000 per year? Oh, as a mortgage company, we don’t care. We charge an extra 3/8%, rake in our commission, origination fees, etc, package the loans and sell them on the secondary market to some sucker investment group. All Senior Management knew this and for them to say otherwise is bull…… Now the hammer is falling on most of the borrowers that lied. They wouldn’t have been approved for these loans in the first place if there weren’t Stated Income loans.
If you want to live in O.C. then you need to pay up period. There are options. Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Stanton.
One of the nice things for those wanting to live in the OC is that the sellers are acting nicer by the day. Their asking prices continue to drop.
Try 4% affordability in Irvine, H.B., N.B. etc…prices still should come down.$
Salaries need to be over 100K to buy a 3 bdrm in Irvine w/ $25,000 down!!! Very few families have $25K put away making 100K!