The California Association of Realtors is reporting that, thanks in large part to home prices leveling off while incomes grew, California housing affordability improved in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Some 25 percent of California households could afford to purchase the $797,470 median-priced home, up from 24 percent the quarter prior. According to C.A.R.’s Traditional Housing Affordability Index, California’s Q4 2021 figure is less than half of the affordability index peak of 56 percent in the first quarter of 2012.
The report goes on to highlight that a minimum annual income of $148,000 was needed to qualify for the purchase of a $797,470 statewide median-priced, existing single-family home in the fourth quarter of 2021. Compared with California, half of the nation’s households could afford to purchase a $361,700 median-priced home, which required a minimum annual income of $67,200 to make monthly payments of $1,680.
Nationwide affordability was down from 55 percent a year ago.
Locally, Los Angeles was the only county in SoCal whose affordability improved from the previous quarter, while San Diego was unchanged. At 17 percent, Orange County was the least affordable, and San Bernardino was the most affordable at 42 percent.
In the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, affordability improved from the previous quarter in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and Napa, and was unchanged in the remaining five counties. San Mateo County was the least affordable at just 19 percent of households able to purchase the $2,100,000 median-priced home. Forty-two percent of Solano County households could afford the $585,000 median-priced home, making it the most affordable Bay Area county.