My wife and I moved to the Sacramento area in 1996, and at that time our 3-bedroom, 2-bath home cost $145,000. Years later, 2002-ish or so, I was getting into Real Estate, and the news from the California Association of Realtors® at the time was that housing in Sacramento was still quite affordable (by California Standards), with about 50 per cent of households being able to afford the median priced home.

Today of course, the numbers are far different. I’m still able to tell folks from the Bay Area or Southern California that we’re the second most affordable area in California (with only the high desert doing better), but the affordability index is down around 19 or so even for our region. Saying we’re the second most affordable in California is like saying we’re the second ugliest girl at the Miss America Pageant — it doesn’t really tell you much.

Today I found the National Housing Conference’s Paycheck to Paycheck page, which shows how affordable different metropolitan areas are to a cross-section of different types of workers. It’s interesting stuff, if not very encouraging for a buyer of a median priced home. The two silver linings, of course, are the fact that the median have reduced somewhat, and that the median is just a statistical point, and by definition, half the homes fall under it. Lately I’ve been somewhat surprised to be showing single family homes for under $300,000 again.

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