The most and least affordable housing markets

Median home price: $225,000
Median income: $49,200
Affordability score: 32.5%

Miami housing markets, especially its condo developments, have been shaken by the market downturn. The fall in median home prices, to $225,000 last quarter from a high of $300,000 earlier in the year, took the percentage of homes sold that were affordable to families earning a median income to 32.4% from 16.5%, according to the NAHB-Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.

Unemployment in Miami, at 7.1%, is slightly below the national average but wages average only $49,200, putting the median priced home, at $225,000, out of reach for many families. Just under of third of all the homes sold during the last three months of 2008 were affordable for typical families.

Foreclosure filings hit nearly 50,000 dwellings in the metro area last year, more than 5% of all households, the eighth highest rate in the nation and almost double that of 2007, according to RealtyTrac.

NEXT