New York NY: The least affordable metro area
$455,000: A 7-bed, 3-bath, two-family attached house in the Bronx.
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Median income: $63,000
Affordability score: 13.9%
In the nation's largest metropolis, New York, home prices took a steep dive during the quarter, to $455,000 from $500,000 three months earlier.
That was not enough to dislodge the city from its rank as the least affordable metro area in the land. Only 13.9% of the homes sold there during the quarter were affordable for median income families, who earned $63,000. That was still a major improvement from two years ago when only 5.1% of homes sold during the fourth quarter of 2006 were affordable.
The good news is that New York households have been barely brushed by the foreclosure crisis so far with only 0.71% receiving some kind of foreclosure filing during 2008.
Housing markets in the New York metro area had held up comparatively well, even after declines started to hit other boom markets hard, but with the financial services industry recording huge losses and shedding jobs, home prices may be in for some steep declines.
NEXT: San Francisco Calif: 2nd least affordable metro area
Last updated February 26 2009: 12:46 PM ET
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