The cheapest place to buy

According to the National Association of Home Builders, Indianapolis is currently the most affordable major US housing market. During the second quarter, 91.6% of the homes sold in that city were affordable to families that earn the area’s median income of $65,100.

The least affordable major market was the New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.J., area, where 11.4% of the homes sold were affordable to families earning the area’s median income of $63,000, according to the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index released this week.

But in case you’re not interested in becoming a Colts fan, here’s where some Bay State regions landed. The Boston-Quincy area ranks 169th of about 220 regions, with approximately 45% of home sales being considered affordable for buyers earning the area’s median income of $79,500. Peabody and the Cambridge-Newton-Framingham regions were slightly more affordable. Nearly 56% of Peabody sales were affordable, ranking it 127th; while the Cambridge region had about 50% affordable sales and ranked 148th.

**Foreclosure follow-up: A few people who posted on the “Would you buy a foreclosure?” entry wondered how to find out about foreclosure sales? There are several types of foreclosure sales and even more ways to find out about them, so I’ll try to cover a few.

To start there are three types of foreclosure sales: One involves an owner who has been put on notice but who still has time to sell. Another involves auctions, and seems riskiest. Finally, there’s “real estate owned” or REO, which comes after the lender has repossessed the property.

To find out about sales, you can peruse classified and legal ads in local newspapers, looking for telltale wording; you can look for foreclosure deeds, in most cases, on the local registry of deeds' website; you can use a web-based service, for a fee; or you can consult a real estate agent who has access to foreclosure listings.

There are a number of web services that gather foreclosure information – but they provide varying levels of service and charge fees. For example, there’s www.ForeclosuresMass.com, which, according to its website, charges $97 to $297 a month. There’s also
www.RealtyTrac.com, which tracks national foreclosures. Some sites offer free trials, but please read the terms carefully so you don’t get hit with unexpected fees!!!

Also, as one other commenter advised, make sure to get legal help if you intend to buy a foreclosure.