5 Least and Most Affordable Housing Markets in the U.S.

(From Marketwatch.com) Buying a home is getting further out of reach for many Americans. According to data released Thursday by online real estate data firm RealtyTrac , housing is now less affordable in more than one-third of U.S. counties than it has been, on average, over the past 14 years; that’s up from just 19% of counties in 2013. This means that nearly 20% of Americans now live in markets where the percentage of income they need to buy a median-priced home is above what they would have needed in the years since 2000. Daren Blomquist, the vice president of RealtyTrac, says that markets are becoming increasingly unaffordable thanks in large part to home price appreciation. The report examined nearly 1,200 counties nationwide. Read more.