The Washington State University College of Business runs a program called the Washington Center for Real Estate. One of the primary missions of the center is to provide data and analysis, much of which is available on their website. A quarterly report they generate is called the Housing Market Snapshot. One of the more interesting numbers it provides is the housing affordability index for Washington and individual Washington Counties.

The housing affordability index uses median income, median home prices, interest rates, and prevailing lending guidelines to calculate the affordability of homes. If a family earning the median income can just qualify for a median priced home at current interest rates, the affordability index is 100. A higher number means that a median income buyer has additional income beyond the minimum required to qualify, so homes are more affordable. A number below 100 means a median income buyer can't qualify to get a loan to buy median priced home with a 20 percent down payment, so homes are less affordable.

In December of 2010, according to the National Association of Realtors, the national affordability index was 181.1. The WSU report shows that the Q4 2010 index for Washington was 149.3. In Kitsap County, the Q4 2010 index was 154.4. In Jefferson County it was 118.7.

An historical table on the site shows that for Kitsap and Jefferson Counties, the recent low point for affordability was in 2007 at 88.9 and 67.0 respectively.

Not surprisingly, homes are currently the most affordable they have been since 2007.