Bolstered by favorable interest rates and low home prices, housing affordability in the second quarter remained near its highest level of the past two decades, according to the Housing Opportunity Index developedby the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo. It was the sixth consecutive quarter that the affordability index hovered near a record high.

The index indicated that 72.3 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the second quarter of 2010 were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,400. The index for the second quarter was slightly more affordable than the previous quarter and almost equaled the record-high 72.5 percent set during the first quarter of 2009. Until 2009, the HOI rarely topped 67 percent and never reached 70 percent.

“Homeownership is within reach of more households than it has been for almost a generation,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones, a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. “Interest rates continue to hover at historic low levels, the economy is beginning to rebound and…house prices [are] starting to stabilize.”

The index found Syracuse, New York to be the most affordable major housing market in the country. There, 97.2 percent of all homes sold were affordable to households earning the area’s median family income of $64,300.

The second-most affordable market was Indianapolis, which had held the top ranking for nearly five years, followed by Detroit; Youngstown, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York.

Among smaller housing markets, the most affordable was Springfield, Ohio, where 96.6 percent of homes sold during the second quarter of 2010 were affordable to families earning a median income of $56,800.

Other smaller housing markets near the top of the index included Mansfield, Ohio; Bay City, Michigan; Monroe, Michigan; and Lansing, Michigan.

New York City continued to lead the nation as the least affordable major housing market, where only 19.9 percent of all homes sold during Q2 were affordable to those earning the area’s median income of $65,600. This was the ninth consecutive quarter that the New York metropolitan division has occupied this position.

The other major metro areas near the bottom of the affordability scale included San Francisco; Irvine, California; Los Angeles; and Honolulu – all metro areas that have lingered among the bottom rankings for several quarters.

San Luis Obispo, California was the least affordable of the smaller metro housing markets in the country during the second quarter. Others included Santa Cruz, California; Ocean City, New Jersey; Santa Barbara, California; and Napa, California.