Most Expensive Places To Live

The National Association of Home Builders has released its year-end Housing Opportunity Index for all metro regions. The HOI is a quarterly measure of the percentage of homes sold that a family earning the median income can afford to buy. "With an HOI score of 89.6, nearly 90 percent of homes sold in the nation’s most affordable market of Springfield, Ill., during the third quarter could be purchased by households making that area’s median family income of $59,100. The median home sale price in Springfield at that time was $95,000. By comparison, less than 6 percent of homes sold in San Francisco – the nation’s least affordable market with an HOI of 5.7 and a median home price of $505,000 – were affordable to those making that area’s median family income of $74,900."