Let’s have another look at home affordability in King County. First up, the affordability index. The affordability index is based on three factors: median single-family home price as reported by the NWMLS, 30-year monthly mortgage rates as reported by the Federal Reserve, and estimated median household income as reported by the Washington State Office of…
Tag: affordability
What Does “Affordable” Mean to You?
Good comment from Jonness on this week’s poll: Personally, I would not feel comfortable leveraging into a $360K loan on a $100K income at a time where a significant risk of price declines exists. But, apparently many people have no problem with this. From what I’ve read, many people actually consider 28% of gross annual…
Affordability Hits Record High on Low Rates & Price Drops
Here’s a headline from the Seattle Times that’s sure to get some attention: King County housing-affordability index best in 17 years Thanks to declining prices and record-low interest rates, houses in King County are more affordable now than they’ve been in at least 17 years, a new score card says. The county’s “housing affordability index”…
Help Me Improve Sound Housing Quarterly
Welcome back, I hope everyone had an enjoyable Labor Day. Speaking of laboring, I recently finished another issue of Sound Housing Quarterly. For those not familiar with this project, it is a quarterly journal in which I roll up all of the vital local real estate statistics into one massive 40+ page tome, complete with…
New & Improved Affordability Calculator
You may recall the javascript-powered affordability calculator I put up here a few years ago. Well, Ross—an intrepid reader and Tableau wizard (and Tableau employee)—decided to take my simple calculator and crank it up a few notches. Behold the new and improved affordability calculator: Affordability Calculator Can you afford the home that you want? Powered…