Housing throughout Pennsylvania remains mostly affordable

In the first quarter of 2016, only 9 percent of housing markets in the country were less affordable than their “normal” levels.

While this is an increase of 2 percent, it ultimately means 43 counties out of 456 counties analyzed for the report are less affordable, according to a recent report from RealtyTrac. Those counties had an affordability index below 100, which means that buying a home was less affordable than the typical level in the past decade.

In Pennsylvania, only one county is less affordable compared to recent years. The Lackawanna, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton area has seen an increase in the cost of housing, but not in wage growth. This area had an affordability index of 85. However, overall, Pennsylvania is an affordable option for most homebuyers.

In the first quarter of 2016, the average homeowner had to spend more than 30 percent of their monthly wage to afford their monthly mortgage payments, property taxes and insurance on a median-priced home, which is $199,000. This is an increase of nearly 4 percent compared to the same time frame in 2015.

The most affordable time for homeowners was in 2012 in the first quarter, when the average homeowner only spent 22.2 percent of their monthly wages on their home. However, when homes were least affordable in the second quarter of 2006, the average homeowner needed to spend more than half- 53.2 percent- of monthly wages.

The “annual change in median home prices in Q1 2016 outpaced annual change in average weekly wages in Q3 2015 (the most recent county-level wage data available from BLS) in 276 of the 456 counties analyzed for the report (61 percent),” the report stated.

Yet, the annual change in average weekly wages outperformed the annual change in median home prices in 39 percent of markets, or 180 of the 456 markets analyzed.