Golden State’s Housing Rated Least Affordable : Homes: Bottom spot goes to Bay Area, a position it has held since ’91. Midwest markets are ranked most affordable.

WASHINGTON —  California cities again dominated the list of the nation’s least affordable housing markets in the final months of 1994, while Midwestern cities remained the most affordable.

San Francisco was again at the bottom of the National Assn. of Home Builders’ Housing Opportunity Index during the October-December period. The city has been the least affordable market since the association began the surveys in the first quarter of 1991.

In addition to San Francisco in the West, the least affordable markets in each region were Chicago in the Midwest; New York in the Northeast, and El Paso, Tex., in the South.

The least affordable list has eight California areas among the first 11. Lima, Ohio, was the most affordable market for the second straight quarter.

San Francisco had 18% of the homes within reach of the median income household at the prevailing mortgage interest rate. Behind it on the least affordable list were Salinas, 23.7%; Santa Cruz, 28.7%; Santa Rosa, 29.8%; El Paso, Tex., 37.5%; New York, 38.5%; Fayetteville, Ark., 39.3%; San Jose, 39.8%; Los Angeles, 40.1%; San Luis Obispo, 40.5%, and San Diego, 41.2%.

Reno, Nev., was 12th with 41.8%, Orange County 16th at 44.4%, Santa Barbara 17th with 44.9%, Oakland 19th at 46.6%%; Yolo County 20th with 47.3%; Vallejo was 21st with 47.8%; Chico 23rd with 48.7%--and Yuba City 24th at 50%. No California or Nevada areas were in the list of 25 most affordable housing areas.

The Home Builders said the Midwest dominated the most affordable areas of the nation with 15 of the 25 most affordable markets in the survey of 183 metropolitan areas. About 500,000 sales of new and existing homes were analyzed.

The index measures the proportion of homes sold in a market that a family earning the median income in that market could afford to buy. The index takes into consideration differences in property tax and insurance rates in each community.

The national opportunity index fell to 62.3 during the fourth quarter, from 66.8 a year earlier. That means a family earning the national median income of $39,900 could have purchased 62.3% of the homes sold during the quarter.