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The housing market’s days of increasing prices every month are over. A two-year period when home prices rose by 20% each month year over year has been undermined by high mortgage rates that have doubled to about 6%. Affordability, defined mostly by the relationship between median income and median home prices, becomes a huge burden when mortgage rates increase monthly mortgage payments by hundreds of dollars. Based on these yardsticks, Toledo stands out as the most affordable market.

 
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta keeps a database it calls the Metro Are Home Ownership Affordability Index. It measures “ the median-income household (needed) to absorb the estimated annual costs associated with owning a median-priced home.”