Unless you have a huge bank account, you need to earn $154,120 a year to afford the median-priced Orange County house, the California Association of Realtors reported Monday, May 15.

Just 21 percent of Orange County households met that benchmark during the first quarter of 2017, the period covered in CAR’s latest affordability report.

That affordability rate is down from 39 percent at the peak of the housing downturn when median house prices were almost $300,000 lower.

But it’s still well above the affordability low of 10 percent reached at the peak of the housing boom, when home prices were only slightly higher than today, but average incomes were lower.

Home prices were slightly more affordable in Los Angeles County. Minimum annual earnings needed to afford the median-priced house there was $99,830 during the first quarter of the year – just shy of a six-figure income.

That’s an affordability rate of 29 percent, down from a recession-era high of 51 percent, but still well above the 9 percent low during the housing boom.

The region’s most affordable housing remains in the Inland Empire. You need an annual income of $75,000 to afford the median-priced house in Riverside County and $52,790 for the median-priced house in San Bernardino County.

But that’s still high compared to the nation as a whole. According to CAR, an income of $47,690 a year is sufficient to afford the average-priced American home.

Affordability rates are based on first-quarter median prices for an existing single-family home, assuming a borrower puts 20 percent down on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage, paying 4.36 percent in interest.

For perspective, Orange County’s minimum homebuying income is almost twice the amount considered to be low-income for a family of four — $83,450 – under 2017 U.S. Housing and Urban Development guidelines.

The minimum income is almost $28,000 above HUD’s low-income threshold for Los Angeles County ($72,100 for a family of four) and is $23,000 above the low-income threshold for Riverside County ($51,600 for a family of four).

In San Bernardino County, however, a low-income family of four misses qualifying to buy a median-priced house by just $1,190.

In the state as a whole, the income needed this year to afford the average California house was $102,050 during the first quarter – slightly higher than the Los Angeles County average. Thirty-two percent of Golden State households could afford that.

The income needed to afford the median-priced condo or townhome in the state was $85,270, during the first quarter, or 40 percent of California households.

California’s lowest affordability rates were in San Francisco (13 percent), Santa Barbara (14 percent) and San Mateo (15 percent).

The state’s highest affordability rates were in Tehama County (between Sacramento and Redding) and Kern County (which includes Bakersfield). Fifty-five percent of the households there could afford the median-priced houses.

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