According to a recent report from the National Association of Home Builders, housing affordability reached a new all-time high during the fourth quarter of last year.

The NAHB/Well Fargo Housing Opportunity index showed that of all the homes sold during the three-month period, nearly 76 percent of them could be afforded by households making the national median income of $64,200.

"While today’s report indicates that homeownership is within reach of more households than it has been for more than two decades, overly restrictive lending conditions confronting home buyers and builders remain significant obstacles to many potential homes sales, even with interest rates at historically low levels," said NAHB chairman Barry Rutenberg.

Additionally, low mortgage rates paired with the increasing affordability has given prospective buyers a number of closing options that were not available during past years.

The report indicated that the most affordable major housing market was in the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman area located in Ohio and Pennsylvania, while the most unaffordable was in the New York-White Plains-Wayne area in New York and New Jersey.