by Staff
For a record-setting ninth consecutive quarter Jacksonville remains as Florida’s most affordable large housing market for the first three months of 2002, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Housing Opportunity Index (HOI).
“Home buyers earning the median income of $55,600 could afford to purchase 77.8 percent of all the newly-built homes sold in the Jacksonville MSA in the first quarter,” said Denise Wallace, president of the 1,600 member Northeast Florida Builders Association (NEFBA). “Low interest rates on home mortgages helped keep homeownership within reach of hundreds of thousands of Americans according to the report just release.”
Also attributing local affordability to the Association’s goal to fight unnecessary fees, unfair taxes and regulations and a favorable sales environment primarily due to the low interest rates, Wallace noted that the national weighted interest rate on adjustable- and fixed-rate mortgages, which is used to calculate the HOI.
According to the HOI the average home price in Northeast Florida is $128,000. Jacksonville ranks in the top 70 nationally in affordability at No. 64 and in the top 30 in the South at No. 27 The Jacksonville MSA is comprised of Duval, Nassau, St. Johns and Clay Counties.