Nothing fancy here, nothing subjective - just the facts. The National Association of Home Builders has compiled statistics rating the country’s most affordable communities based on its own Housing Opportunity Index. The HOI measures the percentage of homes that a family earning the median income in that community can afford to buy. According to the NAHB, a house is considered affordable if mortgage payments, property taxes and insurance are 28 percent or less of total household income.



Updated quarterly, here are the most recent "top ten" HOI results.

Rank	Community	% Affordable homes	Median family income	Median sales price
1	Rockford, Illinois	89.4	$57,100	$99,000
2	Kokomo, Indiana	88.4	$57,600	$99,000
3	Springfield, Illinois	88.3	$61,100	$100,000
4	Syracuse, New York	88.2	$47,900	$80,000
5	Binghamton, New York	85.5	$44,700	$72,600
6	Elkhard-Goshen, Indiana	85.5	$56,400	$117,000
7	Wilmington-Newark, Delaware/Maryland	85.5	$72,100	$89,000
8	Dayton-Springfield, Ohio	85.3	$56,900	$106,000
9	Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton, New Jersey	85.2	$48,600	$89,000
10	Lima, Ohio	85.0	$49,600	$97,000

America’s Best Places to Live
America’s Most Affordable Places to Live
America’s Best Places to Live and Work For Those Under Forty