Runner up: San Francisco
This sweet Edwardian row house in the Mission with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath lists for $599,000.
Median income: $96,800
Affordability score: 22.3%
Home prices in the Bay Area rose during the last three months of 2009, dropping the percentage of affordable homes sold to 22.3.
Still, prices are way off from the heady days of 2006, when a median-priced house sold for $769,000, according to the NAHB-Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. Now the median home is only $625,000.
It's a good thing the area's median income comes to a whopping $96,800, among the highest in the nation. Unemployment, however, is growing, and the 10.1% rate for the metro area puts it above the national average.
That has contributed to the foreclosures that continue to plague the Bay Area. RealtyTrac figures show a total of more than 54,000 homes with filings in 2009.
NEXT: Third place: Honolulu
