Five markets in California are less affordable today then they were historically, Zillow reports. Soon, this number of markets may increase to 25.
The current mortgage interest rates for a 30-year, fixed-rate loan hover around 4 percent, which is much lower than the typical interest rate of 10 percent or higher in the late 1980s.
“While it is very unlikely that mortgage rates will climb back to double digits again any time soon, an increase of 100 or 200 basis points could have consequences in areas already feeling an affordability squeeze (namely, the San Francisco Bay area and Southern California),” Zillow Real Estate Research contends.