With home prices off by 25 percent over the year in San Diego County, a greater percentage of people can afford new homes, according to an “affordability index” called HomeDex prepared by Robert Brown, a professor at Cal State San Marcos.
The median price paid for a single-family house in San Diego was $440,000 in April, which was even with March.
In North County, median prices rose 4 percent on the month from $490,000 in March to $510,000 in April. However, prices in April were down nearly 20 percent from $635,000 April 2007.
The percent of San Diego County households able to afford the county’s median-priced single-family houses in April increased to 21 percent.
Affordability assumes that homebuyers place 20 percent down toward the purchase and spend no more than one-third of their income on the median-priced home. Based on median incomes, only 21 percent of households in the county can afford a home, Brown said.
North San Diego County reported the lowest levels of affordability in the county with 17 percent of households able to afford a median-priced home. In East County, 31 percent of households could afford a median-priced home, and South San Diego County had a 26 percent level of affordability.
, Ned Randolph