The typical American family, making the nation's median income of $64,000 a year, could afford to buy 70.1% of all homes sold in the United States during the third quarter, according to a quarterly report from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500.)  That's down slightly from the previous quarter, when 72.3% were considered affordable, but way up from the third quarter of 2008 when only 56.1% qualified. 

     The NAHB judges a home to be affordable if a family making the metro area's median income could buy it if they devote no more than 28% of their take-home pay toward housing costs.  The affordability pushed many buyers into the market last quarter. Plus, they wanted to take advantage of the $8,000 homebuyer's tax credit that was scheduled to expire on Nov. 30.
 
     Affordability is highest in the industrial Midwest, where home prices have been kept down by slow population growth -- even population loss -- and wages that remain relatively high.  The second most affordable metro area found by NAHB and Wells Fargo was Youngstown, Ohio. The median home price there came in at just $72,000 last quarter and the median income was $54,300. That meant some 93.9% of homes sold were affordable.