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Least affordable: New York City
Least affordable: New York City
$920,000 is the price for this four-bed, three-bath home in the New York City borough of Queens.
Median home price: $425,000
Median income: $64,800
Affordability score: 19.2%

Home prices can be staggeringly high in many New York City metro area communities, but median income is not commensurately high; it's under $65,000. That combo makes it the country's least affordable major metro area.

Although, affordability has improved: The median home price has fallen from about $500,000.

After holding up better and longer than most housing markets, sales and prices around New York City have started to experience greater declines. The market there is highly influenced by what's happening on Wall Street; when financial markets sneeze, the real estate industry there says "God bless you" with feeling.

More stability in the financial markets could lead to a housing market recovery.

NEXT: 2nd place: San Francisco

Last updated November 25 2009: 10:08 AM ET
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Source: National Association of Homebuilders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index for the third quarter of 2009.
The NAHB judges a home to be affordable if a family making the metro area's median income could devote no more than 28% of their take-home pay toward housing costs.
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