Index ranks areas by affordability

The metropolitan statistical area comprising Youngstown, Warren and Boardman, Ohio (which includes some neighborhoods across the Pennsylvania line), is the nation’s most affordable housing market among major metropolitan areas with populations of more than 500,000, according to the National Assn. of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index for the first quarter of 2005.

Also near the top of the affordability scale among areas with populations exceeding 500,000 were Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Mich.; Dayton, Ohio; and Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y., in that order.

In the neighborhoods comprising the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman area, fully 90.2% of homes sold in the first quarter were affordable to families earning that locale’s median household income of $51,300.

At the other end of the scale, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale area was rated the least affordable metropolitan area. Just 5.2% of homes sold in the beginning of this year were affordable to families earning the median income of $54,500.