Rising prices in the first quarter of the year pushed up the income needed to afford a home to its highest level since 2007.
Major homeownership expenses last quarter required about 33 percent of a family’s monthly income, a report from nationwide property data provider ATTOM showed. Typically, lenders call for a buyer’s monthly debt-to-income ratio not to exceed 28 percent.
Now after three quarters of declines, the price for a median single-family home rose to $350,000 — up 10 percent from the first quarter.
ATTOM’s report shows prospective buyers needed to earn at least $75,000 annually to afford a median-priced home in about half of the nation’s housing markets.
The highest yearly wages needed to afford a median-priced home were highest in markets along the East and West coasts.
Wage requirements were highest in Manhattan County, N.Y., where prospective buyers need to earn more than $383,000 annually to afford a typical home. Manhattan is followed by San Mateo County, Calif., where buyers need an income higher than $361,000 for a typical home purchase.
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Three California counties — Marin, Santa Clara, and San Francisco — round out the top five. Buyers need earnings of $352,153 in Marin, $340,803 in Santa Clara, and $327,906 in San Francisco County.
California’s Santa Cruz, Alameda, Orange and Napa counties and Kings County, N.Y. — which includes Brooklyn — completed the top 10. Wages higher than $200,000 were necessary in each of these counties to afford a median-priced home.
The report also notes where wage requirements to afford a median-priced home are lowest. Three of the counties were in Pennsylvania. Prospective buyers in Cambria County, Pa., must earn just less than $15,000 to afford a typical home.
Housing prices skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic boom. Rising mortgage rates exacerbated the housing affordability squeeze and have failed to make a dent in home prices.
Mortgage rates have settled above 6 percent in recent months after soaring from historic lows amid the Federal Reserve’s fight with inflation. And recent sales data indicates buyers are adjusting to the rates.
New home sales surged by 12.2 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 763,000 units. Sales were 20 percent higher than they were a year ago.