WASHINGTON -- Favorable financing conditions and higher incomes helped make it considerably easier for American families to afford homeownership in this year's first quarter compared to the same period one year ago,
according to the National Association of Home Builders' Housing Opportunity Index (HOI), released today.
"Nearly 65 percent of all new and existing homes sold in this country in January through March of 2002 were affordable to families earning the national median income of $54,400," said Gary Garczynski, NAHB president and
a builder/developer from Woodbridge, Va. "That's up substantially from 56.9
percent in last year's first quarter, and up a notch from the 64.1 percent of homes affordable at the end of 2001."