Southerners saw the value of their homes grow fastest in the first quarter of 1992, a survey said Wednesday. But the South - along with the Midwest - still had the most-affordable housing.
The Northeast and the West, particularly California, continued to be the least-affordable regions, according to the survey by the National Association of Home Builders.Nevertheless, Manchester, N.H., in the costly Northeast was the most-affordable metropolitan area in the United States from January through March. It had a rating of 90.6 percent on the association's Housing Opportunity Index.
The most-affordable areas in other regions were Saginaw-Bay City, Mich., in the Midwest, 89.3 percent; Brazoria, Texas, in the South, 87.9 percent, and Greeley, Colo., in the West, 80.9 percent.
The index represents the percentage of homes sold in the quarter that could have been purchased at prevailing interest rates by a family earning the area's median income.
San Francisco, in the West, remained the least-affordable area with a 9.3 percent rating. In other regions, the least-affordable markets were the Aurora-Elgin suburbs of Chicago in the Midwest, 60.9 percent; the Wilmington, Del., metropolitan area in the South, 55.1 percent, and New York in the Northeast, 14.5 percent.
The survey, including 325,519 sales of new and previously owned houses in 169 markets, showed prices rising fastest in the South.
Thirteen of 51 metropolitan areas there, seven of them in Florida, posted price hikes of more than 10 percent over the same quarter of 1991. Only two areas registered declines, although the region had three of the 25 most-afordable areas in the nation.
The Midwest experienced price increases of more than 10 percent in five of 37 metropolitan areas, and decreases in four others. It had 19 of the 25 most-affordable areas.
In the Northeast, home prices were up more than 10 percent in only four of 42 areas. Prices fell in 15 areas, but the region still had six of the 25 least-affordable markets.
Prices rose more than 10 percent in eight of 39 areas in the West and fell in seven. The West had the other 19 least-affordable areas and was the only region unable to place an area on the 25 most-affordable list.
Manchester's 90.6 percent index rating was up from 83.5 percent in the fourth quarter when it was ranked the 21st most-affordable market.
Manchester also recorded a 14.7 percent decline in the median home price from the previous quarter, the steepest of any market in the nation.
"Housing affordability increased in the Manchester area in the first quarter of 1992 because the bulk of home sales occurred primarily in lower-priced homes," said Robert Buchert, the association president.
"The higher end of the housing market remained sluggish due to the recession in the Northeast," he added.
In Manchester, the median price of a home was $87,000; the median income, $46,600.
According to the mortgage underwriting standards used for calculating the index, at the prevailing interest rate of 8.75 percent a family could afford to buy a home costing 2.9 times its annual income, or $135,140. In Manchester, 90.6 percent of the homes sold were priced at or below $135,140.
Nationally, the median income was $38,600, and the median price of a home was $105,000. The median means that half of the incomes totaled more and half were less, or that half of the homes cost more and half less.