Key stat: Just 1.8 percent of houses here are affordable to those earning the city's median income

In the nation's second city, very few houses, less than 2 percent of all sold during the year, were affordable to families earning the area's median income. At this point that would seem to shut the vast majority of the city's new buyers out of the local market.

In Los Angeles, the median home price is more than four times what it is in Indianapolis, yet the household income is nearly $9,000 lower.