High mortgage interest rates depressed California’s housing affordability in the final quarter of 2022. According to the California Association of Realtors, the statewide affordability index for an existing, single-family home fell to 17 percent, just above the 15-year low of 16 percent recorded in the second quarter of 2022.
Year-over-year, statewide affordability was down from 25 percent a year earlier. California hit a peak high affordability index of 56 percent in the first quarter of 2012.
Not one single county saw an improvement in affordability from a year ago. Quarterly, in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, affordability declined from the previous quarter in Solano and Sonoma, increased in Napa, and remained flat in the other six counties.
In the Southern California region, housing affordability fell in four counties from Q3 of 2022 and remained unchanged in two counties. San Bernardino County was the most affordable in the region at 29 percent of households able to purchase the $458,000 median-priced home.
Statewide, a minimum annual income of $201,200 was needed to qualify for the purchase of a $790,020 statewide median-priced, existing single-family home in the fourth quarter of 2022.