In a ranking of 215 U.S. metropolitan areas by the Building Industry Association, Ventura-Thousand Oaks ranked 28th in least affordable homes at the end of 2011 with 66 percent of the families with median incomes able to afford homes. The Los Angeles metro area was sixth, with only 48 percent affordability.

The national average is 76 percent; California’s affordability average is 66 percent.

All figures improved in the fourth quarter of last year.

“Clearing out unsold inventory and getting job-generating home construction back to healthy levels would give a much-needed jump-start to our overall economy,” said Mike Winn, president of the California Building Industry Association.

The least affordable homes in the country are in New York and Honolulu.

Source: NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index