USA has all of the world's 11 affordable housing markets

[Max Householder]

I came across this really interesting study on worldwide housing affordability.

"The 13th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey covers 406 metropolitan housing markets (metropolitan areas) in nine countries (Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States) for the third quarter of 2016. A total of 92 major metropolitan markets (housing markets) --- with more than 1,000,000 population --- are included."

"The Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey rates middle-income housing affordability using the “Median Multiple,” which is the median house price divided by the median household income"

"There are 11 affordable major housing markets in 2016, all in the United States. Rochester is the most affordable, with a Median Multiple of 2.5, followed by Buffalo (2.6), Cincinnati (2.7), Cleveland (2.7), Pittsburgh (2.7), Oklahoma City (2.9), St. Louis (2.9) and four at 3.0, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis and Kansas City."

There is a nice chart on page 13 of the study (page 23 of the PDF).

"The affordable markets are generally characterized by more liberal land use regulation, which is associated with greater housing affordability."

http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf