Homes in an increasing number of communities grew lessaffordable during the second quarter of the year, RealtyTrac said Thursday.

In a release for its Housing Affordability Index for the secondquarter, the company said 18% of U.S. housing markets were lessaffordable in Q2 2016 compared to their historic norms. That's ajump from 5% of markets reported in the previous quarter, but down from the 20% reported a year ago.

Of the 417 counties analyzed, 74 counties had an affordabilityindex below 100 in the second quarter. That means buying amedian-priced home was less affordable than the historically normallevel for each county dating back to the first quarter of 2005.

“Although nearly one in five U.S. housing markets was notaffordable by historic standards in the second quarter, the goodnews is that affordability is improving compared to a year ago inthe majority of markets thanks to a combination of slowing homeprice appreciation and accelerating wage growth, along with fallinginterest rates,” RealtyTrac Senior Vice President Daren Blomquistsaid.

Annual wage growth outpaced home price growth in 55% of thecounties, including Miami-Dade County, Fla.; Kings County, N.Y.;Santa Clara County, Calif.; Wayne County, Mich.; and Bexar County,Texas.

Before the second quarter of the year, annual home price growthoutpaced annual wage growth in more than half the counties analyzedfor 16 consecutive quarters.

Home price growth outpaced wage growth in 45% of the counties,including Los Angeles County, Calif.; Cook County, Ill.; HarrisCounty, Texas; Maricopa County, Ariz.; and San Diego County,Calif.

Kings County, N.Y. was the least affordable by the absolutestandard of percentage of wages needed to buy a median priced home,followed by Marin County, Calif.; Santa Cruz County, Calif.; andSan Francisco County, Calif.

Counties where homes were most affordable were Clayton County,Ga.; Wayne County, Mich.; Baltimore, Md.; and Bay County, Mich.