If you’re considering buying a home, you’ve likely already thought about whether or not you can afford it. After all, buying a home is a major financial transaction, so there are few considerations more important than affordability. That’s why the National Association of Home Builders latest Housing Opportunity Index is good news for potential buyers. The report – which measures how affordable homes are for families earning the national median income – found that 59.6 percent of new and existing home sold between April and June were affordable. But while that’s positive news, affordability did fall from the first quarter, with the number of affordable homes down due to rising home prices. “Home prices appreciated robustly during the second quarter due to better-than-expected housing demand in the wake of the pandemic and because the coronavirus hindered the ability of builders to ramp up production,” Robert Dietz, NAHB’s chief economist, said. In fact, increasing prices let to a 1.7 percent drop in the number of affordable homes. During the first quarter, 61.3 percent of sold homes were considered affordable.
