Just in case you missed the article in the Sacramento Bee about median home prices, I thought I would post a note about it here. The bottom line is that everyone seems to be getting on board (even the media!) with the idea that first time home buyers are be offered what may be the opportunity of a lifetime.
Here is a bit of the article in case you missed it….
… few places beat Sacramento, according to a new report from the California Association of Realtors.
CAR says 80 percent of Sacramento County first-timers could afford a median-priced entry-level home in the first quarter of 2009.
The same quarter in 2008 it was 65 percent – considered then to be amazing.
Only the high desert region of Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley’s Merced County – which has seen a median entry-level price tumble to an astonishing $89,040 – were more affordable than Sacramento County. (Median is where half the homes cost more and half less.)
In California, 69 percent of buyers could afford a median-priced entry-level house at $213,040, CAR said.
The report, issued Thursday, pegged Sacramento County’s entry-level median at $143,870, requiring a qualifying income of $25,720 based on 10 percent down and a 4.96 percent interest rate. Sacramento County tends to do well in CAR’s affordability index with its relatively good public-sector salaries and its inland California home values.
Median sales prices for all existing homes sold in Sacramento County have dropped by a third in the past year to $160,000, according to researcher MDA DataQuick. They’re off 57 percent from an August 2005 high of $374,000.
