The number of people in California that can afford to buy a home continues to fall.

According to California’s Association of Realtors, high home prices and rising interest rates are to blame.

New data reveals only 1 in 5 people can afford a home in the Bay Area.

These findings are in the first two quarters of the year.

One realtor KRON4 spoke with says affordability has so much to do with supply and demand. Right now, it’s a seller’s market in the East Bay.

A study by the California Association of Realtors says the state is showing home affordability rates down to a 10-year low.

The reason is high home prices and rising interest rates even in counties like Contra Costa and Alameda where home buyers typically think they can get a deal.

“Our biggest problem is we don’t have enough housing and people can’t afford to buy homes at this price,” realtor Glen Bell said.

Bell is with Better Homes and Garden. He says it may take decades to have enough houses at affordable prices.

He listed a three-bedroom in Richmond View at $629,000 but predicts this will sit on the market for 45 days.

“Affordability has so much to do with how much we got in the market,” Bell said. “The prices have been going up the last five to six years. This is not something that happened overnight.”

But there are undiscovered areas where Century 21 Realtor Janella Anguiano says you can get a deal in the heart of Castro Valley.

A three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom home is listed at $769,000.

Just three weeks ago, a house across the street with two bedrooms, smaller in square footage, just sold for $11,000 more.

“I want to get people in the door,” Anguiano said. “I don’t want to be priced at that price where people think, ‘Oh, we have to overbid that.’ That’s what causing the overbid and overbid or pricing it too high to start with and then having to reduce it.”

Anguiano says the East Bay housing market is good for sellers and the interest rates are apparently at a historic low.

“I try to cue my sellers to price their homes lower than the neighborhood sales because when you price your home at the last sale, that’s what that buyer was willing to pay for that home and that’s why we’re starting to see price reductions here and there because we are starting it at where the last home sold for,” Anguiano said.

She has about 40 interested buyers as we speak and expecting an offer by Monday.

Other undiscovered areas to look into are Livermore, Hayward and some spots in Oakland where you can get more square footage for your buck.

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