Briefly

* California’s real estate market may be downshifting, but that hasn’t eased buyers’ affordability woes. The California Building Industry Assn./Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index fell in 22 of the 27 California metropolitan areas it surveyed during the second quarter of 2006. L.A. County posted the lowest affordability of the 199 metropolitan areas surveyed, with only 1.9% of the homes sold affordable to families earning the county’s median income of about $47,000.