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State of Affairs PRESENTS TOP NEWS Over the past year, home prices have risen 16 percent and mortgage rates have climbed from 3.7 percent to 4.43 percent, all while incomes have risen by just 3 percent, according to Bankrate's Interest.com site. These diverging trends have led to a decline in housing affordability across the nation. "The simple fact is that the very small improvement Americans have seen in their paychecks hasn't kept pace with a jump in home prices and mortgage rates," said Mike Sante, managing editor of Interest.com. In all 25 of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, consumers have lost some of their buying power as the selection of homes falling into their affordable price range shrinks. In fact, in 17 of the 25 largest markets, a median income is not enough to purchase a median-priced home. Last year, this held true in only six markets, according to Interest.com. The country's least affordable large-metro market is San Francisco, where the median income is 47.93 percent below what would be necessary to purchase a median-priced home. Three of the five least affordable markets are located in California. San Diego is the second-least affordable market in the United States; there, median income would need to rise 37.71 percent to afford a median-priced home. Los Angeles comes in as the fourth-least affordable market, where median income would need to increase 30.13 percent. The list is rounded out by New York in third place and Miami in fifth place. On the other hand, the most affordable market is Atlanta, where the median income exceeds what is necessary to purchase a median-priced home by 24.92 percent. Other markets in the top five list of most affordable markets include Minneapolis (23.86 percent); St. Louis (17.94 percent); Detroit (16.87 percent); and Pittsburgh (11.33 percent). Note: The state-by-state trends are based on a compilation of September 2013 real estate public records data and proprietary mortgage loan performance transactions provided by LPS Data & Analytics as well as a preliminary unemployment rate for September 2013 based upon public information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. LPS Data & Analytics is a trusted resource for mortgage lenders, servicers and investors—providing market-leading data and analytics solutions to help them succeed. These offerings allow professionals to improve performance, proactively identify risk, create mitigation strategies and accurately estimate collateral value. An integral part of parent company LPS' end-to-end solution suite, LPS Data & Analytics products include: property, MLS and mortgage performance data, mortgage and real estate analytics, lead generation, portfolio monitoring and analytics, valuations and property tax reporting. To learn more about LPS visit LPSvcs.com.