While housing affordability is a hot issue nationwide, about a quarter of U.S. counties aren't experiencing an affordability problem, according to an analysis by ATTOM Data Solutions. In 26% of the 498 counties researchers recently tracked, housing was still affordable to average wage earners in the third quarter. Harris County in Texas (Houston), Wayne County in Michigan (Detroit), and Philadelphia County in Pennsylvania boast some of the nation’s best housing affordability.

Still, in about 67% of the counties ATTOM researchers analyzed, residents required at least 30% of their annualized weekly wages to buy a home in the third quarter. The counties that required the greatest percentage of wages to buy a home were:

• Kings County, N.Y. (Brooklyn): 110.4% of annualized weekly wages needed to buy a home
• Santa Cruz County, Calif.: 105%
• Marin County, Calif. (San Francisco): 102.4%
• Maui County, Hawaii: 87.9%
• Monterey County, Calif.: 87.5%

The counties that required less than 30% of their annualized weekly wages to buy a home in the third quarter and had among some of the smallest percentages included:

• Calhoun County, Mich. (Battle Creek): 14.4% of annualized weekly wages needed to buy a home
• Wayne County, Mich. (Detroit): 14.9%
• Clayton County, Ga. (Atlanta): 15.2%
• Rock Island County, Ill. (Davenport): 15.5%
• Montgomery County, Ala. (16.2%)

Source: "10 Most Affordable Counties for Homeowners" REALTOR Magazine (October 1, 2019)