The seemingly endless downward pressure on prices kept the affordability of homes well above 70 percent in the third quarter of the year, data from the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) shows.

The most-recent rate was 72.9 percent, holding up a trend begun in 2009. The index, which tells how much of sold housing stock went for prices affordable to people who have the median income for each area surveyed.

The third-quarter affordability is based on a national median income of $64,200. In some areas surveyed, the index was in the 90s, though other places were in the 40s, the NAHB reported.

The index had been in the 40s for much of the first decade of this century. It began to float up in 2008, and has been above 70 since the first quarter of 2009. The record is 74.6 percent in the first quarter of this year.