More good news for our custom home builders: Nationwide housing affordability has hit a new record high! This is so for a second consecutive quarter in the first three months of this year, according to the Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) from the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo. This new HOI data reveals that 77.5 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the first quarter were affordable to families earning the national median income of $65k. This is an improvement over the previous record in the final quarter of 2011. Then, only 75.9% of homes sold were affordable to these median-income earners.

However, tight credit has remained an obstacle for many home buyers. Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Gainesville, Flordia, said that, “Homes in this year’s first quarter were more affordable than they have been at any time in more than 20 years, yet many potential sales are not happening because of overly tight lending conditions that are keeping hardworking families from obtaining a suitable mortgage. Without this significant hurdle, the housing and economic recovery could be proceeding at a much stronger pace.” Read the whole article here.

Have you seen these limitations on sales as a custom home builder? The housing market may be improving, but as we noted in the last post it’s been a tough fight. To be on the forefront of the housing market as it improves, you definitely need to consider your scheme for custom home builder internet marketing. And that’s true whether you’re in the most affordable housing market, like Indianapolis-Carmel Indiana, where 95.8% of homes, and Cumberland West Virginia where 99% of homes, were affordable to households earning the area’s median income. Or whether you’re in the bottom of that HOI listing, like in New York were just 31.5% of homes sold in the first three months of this year were affordable to those earning the area’s median income.

If you have questions about your internet marketing – from website design, to mobile websites, to SEO – contact Builder Designs and we’ll be happy to answer any question or just mention your options.