As California's median home price set a new high in March and interest rates reached their highest levels in more than two years, the housing affordability outlook for Californians was diminished in the first quarter of 2022, according to California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.)
California housing affordability shrinks in first-quarter 2022 as home prices set record highs and interest rates rise.
The percentage of homebuyers who could afford to purchase a median-priced, existing single-family home in California in first quarter 2022 ticked down to 24 percent from 25 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021 and was down from 27 percent in the first quarter of 2021, according to C.A.R.'s Traditional Housing Affordability Index (HAI). The first-quarter 2022 figure is less than half of the affordability index peak of 56 percent
