Most Affordable Housing Markets

While tracking Wall Street and the economy in general has become a daily beating, not all the news is bad. If you have money to spend or can qualify for credit, the downturn in the housing market is an opportunity to buy — and to find some real deals while you’re at it.

Which cities offer the best bargains? Using data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index, BusinessWeek came up with a list. Cities were ranked based on the share of homes sold in the second quarter of 2008 that would have been affordable to a family earning the local median income and willing to pay 28 percent of its gross income on housing.

Here’s who made the cut:

  1. Indianapolis-Carmel, Ind.

  2. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa.

  3. Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich.

  4. Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich.

  5. Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Mich.

  6. Toledo, Ohio

  7. Dayton, Ohio

  8. Akron, Ohio

  9. Syracuse, N.Y.

10. Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Pa.

Check out the statistics, read more about these areas, and see a slideshow at BusinessWeek.