Florida Homes Continue to Be Affordable

Florida homes became more affordable in 2011, based on the housing affordability index report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). All of the Florida metro housing markets monitored by the NAR posted increases in affordability compared to 2010, except one, which was the Cape Coral-Fort Myers market.

The most affordable market in Florida was Ocala and the market with the lowest affordability in the state was Tallahassee. NAR tracks housing affordability by comparing median home prices and median household income. An index of 100 is the point where a family earning the area’s median household income has the exact income to buy any of the area’s median-priced homes. The higher the index, the more affordable the median-priced homes are to median-income-earning residents.

Here are the housing affordability indexes in 12 Florida metro markets, ranked from the most affordable to the least affordable:

Compared to 2010 housing affordability levels, the 5 metro areas with the biggest affordability improvements in 2011 were the following:

Nationwide, the most affordable metro markets in 2011 were the following, which more than doubled the index of 100. The Detroit area, which posted the highest affordability index, almost quadrupled the index of 100. The table shows that the most affordable homes in 2011 were in the Midwest, specifically in the northeastern states.

The least affordable homes in the nation in 2011 were in:

Here are the median prices for existing single-family homes sold by Florida metro markets in 2011:

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