L.A. HOUSING STILL NATION'S LEAST AFFORDABLE.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer The Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. metropolitan area remained the nation's least affordable housing market for the sixth consecutive quarter in the final three months of last year, a trade association said Thursday. In the Los Angeles/Glendale/Long Beach area, just 2.3 percent of the homes sold in the 2005 fourth quarter were affordable to families earning the median income of $54,500, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. By comparison, 90.4 percent of the homes sold in the Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in the American state of Iowa that borders the Mississippi River. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 98,359. A 2006 estimate tells that the city had grown slightly to 99,514. , area -tops in the nation - were affordable to residents earning the median income there of $57,800. Price explains why. The median home price in Los Angeles hit $500,000 in the fourth quarter versus $89,000 in Davenport. Nationally, just 41 percent of the homes sold were affordable to families earning the median income, a record low. It is not surprising that this measure of housing hit all time lows because prices hit record levels last year in many areas of the county, including Los Angeles. The most affordable major metro area This article is about the music production team. For the article about population centers, see metropolitan area. Metro Area are a Brooklyn-based dance music production team composed of Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani. was Indianapolis, where 88.7 percent of the homes sold were affordable to families earning the median income of $64,000. The median price, the point at which half the units cost more and half less, was $120,000. Rising interest rates, while still low by historical standards, also helped drive down affordability, the association said. Affordability should improve a bit this year as the residential real estate market slows from a torrid pace. But buying in Buying in has several meanings. In the securities market it refers to a process by which the buyer of securities, whose seller fails to deliver the securities contracted for, can 'buy in' the securities from a third party with the defaulting seller to make good. high-priced markets like Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, will still be a challenge. Steve Melman, the association's director of economic services, said that coastal California Coastal California refers to the coastal regions of the US state of California. The term is not primarily geographical as it also describes an area distinguished by sociological, economical and political attributes. has long been an expensive market and that is not likely to change, especially in Southern California, because of a lack of buildable build·a·ble adj. Suitable or available for building: "The problem was finding a site that was well located, appropriately zoned . . . and buildable" Sam Hall Kaplan. land and other issues. In middle America Middle America 1 A region of southern North America comprising Mexico, Central America, and sometimes the West Indies. Middle American adj. & n. , where affordability is best, the is adequate land and maybe a political climate more favorable to new construction, he said. ``I remember in the late 1970s California was the most expensive place, particularly Southern California, and it's no different now,'' Melman said. The association expects that the average interest on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage will inch up gradually to about 6.6 percent late this year and average about 6.5 percent for the entire 12 months. Even though this market is the nation's least affordable, sales were strong last year. Leslie Appleton-Young, vice president and chief economist at the California Association of Realtors, said a lot of the action came from previous owners using their equity to trade up to nicer or newer homes. That may be waning, though. ``Most homeowners could not afford to buy their homes today if they had to,'' she said. Gregory J. Wilcox, (818) 713-3743 greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com |
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