If interest rates were to rise 25 basis points in the first quarter of 2016 from what they were in the first quarter of 2015 (to 4.02 percent) and home prices and wages grow at the same annual pace they did in Q1 2015, then 177 of the 582 counties (30 percent) would exceed their historic affordability averages.
If interest rates were to rise 50 basis points in the first quarter of 2016 from what they were in the first quarter of 2015 (to 4.27 percent) and home prices and wages grow at the same annual pace they did in Q1 2015, then 183 of the 582 counties (31 percent) would exceed their historic affordability averages.
If interest rates were to rise a full percentage point in the first quarter of 2016 from what they were in the first quarter of 2015 (to 4.77 percent) and home prices and wages grow at the same annual pace they did in Q1 2015, then 203 of the 582 counties (35 percent) would exceed their historic affordability averages.
Least affordable housing markets include Brooklyn, San Francisco, Maui
The least affordable counties in the first quarter were led by Eagle County, Colo., where 138.5 percent of the average wage was needed to make monthly payments on an average priced home. Other counties in the top five least affordable for buying a home in the first quarter of 2015 were Kings County (Brooklyn), N.Y. (126.3 percent); Marin County, Calif., in the San Francisco metro area (119.3 percent); Santa Cruz County, Calif., (109 percent) and Maui County, Hawaii (99.2 percent). Of the top five least affordable markets, only Eagle County had exceeded its historic affordability average in the first quarter.
Other counties among the top 20 least affordable in the first quarter included counties in the Key West, Fla., San Francisco, San Jose, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Denver metro areas.
Most affordable housing markets include counties in St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit
The most affordable counties in the first quarter were led by Hamilton County, Fla., where 5.6 percent of the average wage was needed to make monthly payments on an average priced home. Other counties in the top five most affordable were Saint Louis County (8.3 percent), Saint Louis City (9.4 percent), Lake County, Indiana in the greater Chicago metro area (9.5 percent), and Fairfield County, South Carolina in the Columbia metro area (10.3 percent).
Other counties among the top 20 most affordable in the first quarter included counties in the Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore and Philadelphia metro areas.
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