It is especially important for first-time buyers without existing home equity; if the down payment becomes too high then those buyers may find themselves "priced out" of the market. For example, as of 2004[update] this ratio was equal to one year of income in the UK.[11] Another variant is what the United States's National Association of Realtors calls the "housing affordability index" in its publications.[12] (The soundness of the NAR's methodology was questioned by some analysts as it does not account for inflation.[13] Other analysts,[who?] however, consider the measure appropriate, because both the income and housing cost data are expressed in terms that include inflation and, all things being equal, the index implicitly includes inflation[citation needed]).