According to the study, the amount of income needed to purchase the median-priced home dipped in 161 of the 201 markets studied. Some of the biggest drops occurred in the largest, most expensive markets in California, Washington, DC, Arizona and Florida. Yet, in almost all cases, affordability problems persist. Only a handful of markets previously not affordable to registered nurses, customer service representatives and office clerks were affordable to those workers in 2007. In the majority of markets, homeownership remains unaffordable for these occupations, while for retail salespersons and food preparation workers, homeownership is out of reach in all markets studied.

While rental housing is affordable to a greater range of workers, workers in low-wage occupations continue to struggle to afford the rents in many metro areas. Retail salespersons and food preparation workers cannot afford the rent on a two-bedroom apartment in any of the 210 markets studied in the rental portion of the study. Office clerks cannot afford to rent without paying an excessive portion of their income for housing in 94 of the 210 markets. The other high-growth occupations fare much better. Customer service representatives are priced out of the rental market in only 41 metro markets, while registered nurses are able to afford the rents in all 210 markets.****