Home Affordability Is 5th Lowest in the Nation

Although housing prices have fallen over the past two years, Ventura County is still the fifth least affordable place in the nation for its residents to buy a home.

In its annual survey, the National Assn. of Home Builders calculated that a median-income family in the county would have been able to buy only 15% of the houses sold within the first three months of this year.

The home builders association found that only four out of 169 urban regions surveyed nationwide were less affordable than the Oxnard-Ventura housing market. The other four were: San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles-Long Beach and New York.

It was the second year in a row that Ventura County had ranked fifth on the least affordable list, the group said. During the same period last year, 14.9% of the houses sold in the county could be purchased by families with median incomes.

New and used houses in Ventura County sold for a median price of $197,000 from January through March, said Ashok Chaluvadi, an economic researcher at the association’s headquarters in Washington. That, coupled with a median household income in the county of $48,400, meant that thousands of families failed to qualify for mortgages.

The builders association arrived at its calculations by assuming that a family making a 20% down payment can afford to buy a home costing 2.9 times its annual income at today’s interest rates.

In Ventura County, that means a family would need to earn $67,950--nearly $20,000 more than the median--to buy a median-priced home.

Real estate agents explain the county’s affordability squeeze as a conflict between its high desirability as a residence, which buoys housing prices, and its residents’ relatively low incomes. The combination prevents many families from entering the housing market or trading up to larger houses.

Many young couples are turning to their parents for help in coping with the affordability problem, said George Kite, president of the Ventura Assn. of Realtors.

“The typical home buyer in our area is a couple about 33 years old with a gross annual income of $58,500 and no automobile or credit-card debt,” he said.

“They buy a house at an average price of $209,000. To get in, they put $20,000 of their own money down and get help from their parents in the form of another $20,000. Their monthly payments, including taxes and insurance, total about $1,700.”

Kite said relatively low incomes in the west county contribute to the low-affordability rating. “We have a lower median income, say, in Ventura than in the east county,” he said. “Your high-income people tend to move to Thousand Oaks or Westlake Village.”

Fred Drosten, president of Drosten Properties in Camarillo, said prices in his area have stabilized after falling drastically for nearly three years.

“The climate, the clean air, the open spaces and the easy access to mountains and beaches all attract people here, so I expect prices to start rising a bit,” he said. “Still, Ventura County house prices have taken a tremendous hit since 1989. They’re down 20% to 40% in Camarillo.”

Both Drosten and Kite said the county’s housing market has improved somewhat since the start of the year.

“The market has picked up, but it’s spotty,” Drosten said. “Sales have improved at the high and low ends, but not so much in the middle.”

Kite said 900 single-family houses are now on the market in Ventura, about the same as last year, with the average property taking 94 days to sell. “I expect to see a 2% increase in price and a 4% increase in sales activity next year,” he said.

The California Assn. of Realtors, which tracks sales of used homes only, gave Ventura County a higher affordability rating than did the home builders group. The California association said 27% of the county’s families could afford to buy a median-priced home at the end of the first quarter, up from 20% a year ago.

According to the state group, the median-priced used home in the county cost $226,680 at the end of March, with buyers needing a gross income of $65,792 to qualify for a mortgage with 20% down.

In the builders survey, 19 of the 25 least affordable regions in the country are in California.