California’s affordability crisis continues to plague the state, pricing more and more would-be homeowners out of the market.
How could they buy a home though? Homebuyers needed to earn a minimum annual income of $101,217 to qualify for the median-priced, existing single-family home in California in the second quarter of 2016, which would be $516,220.
This data, which comes from the latest report from the California Association of Relators, continued the math, citing that a homebuyer’s monthly payment, including taxes and insurance on a 30-year, fixed-rate loan, would be $2,530. The math assumes a 20% down payment and an effective composite interest rate of 3.85%.
A 20% down is already pretty unrealistic for borrowers, especially for Millennials who are more commonly putting 3% down instead, and it still only gets the monthly payment down to $2,530.
And this is technically better than a year ago. According to the CAR report, the percentage of homebuyers who could afford to purchase a median-priced, existing single-family home in California in second-quarter 2016 fell to 31% from 34% in the first quarter of 2016 but up from 30% in second-quarter 2015.
This marks the 13th consecutive quarter that the index came in below 40% and is getting closer to the mid-2008 low level of 29%. California's housing affordability index hit a peak of 56% in the first quarter of 2012, the report stated.
It’s this continual affordability crisis that’s prompted headlines such as “Is San Francisco in a housing bubble?” and “What’s California real estate going to do in 2016?” on HousingWire.
