Home Affordability In Sacramento County At Nine Year Low

Home affordability in Sacramento County has hit a new low as home prices keep going up and wage growth slows down. 

Sacramento has an affordability index of 95. That's not good because it's below 100. An index above 100 means people earning the median income have enough money to qualify for a mortgage.

"It means affordability is worse there than it has been historically. And that 95 index in Sacramento County is also the lowest we've seen in quite some time," says Daren Blomquist with ATTOM Data Solutions. He says it's the lowest he's seen since the first quarter of 2008, so more than a nine year low in affordability.

The median-priced Sacramento County home in the second quarter was $318,000. Blomquist says average wage earners in the region would need to spend 40 percent of their income to buy that home, which is better than the rest of the state.

"Across the 42 counties in California we looked at, average wage earners would need to spend over 60 percent of their income on buying a median-priced home," says Blomquist.

He says that's because of California's very high priced coastal counties.