In the U.S. the national household income required to purchase a median-priced home is now $116,000, according to a report from Realtor.com on Thursday.
After accounting for tax and insurance costs, that’s up $5,900 from this time last year, despite the median listing price remaining unchanged at $430,000.
But in California’s major metro areas, buyers needed more than double the national figure to buy a median-priced home, with at least four major metros requiring an income of more than $250,000.
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“California is a fascinating market not only because the income-required figures are an eye-popping quarter of a million dollars, but because it is a microcosm of the variety we’re seeing in housing markets nationally,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com.
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San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara topped Realtor.com’s list, with a $361,000 household income required to buy a median-priced home, up 1.1% from last year. The area has a median listing price of $1.467 million, which is a 4.5% drop from last April.
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim came in at No. 2, with $298,000 required household income—a whopping 14.7% increase from last year. The median listing price rose significantly, too, up 8.4% to $1.192 million.
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad had the third-highest required household income at $259,000, up 11.2% from a year ago. The median listing price for the metro was up 5% to $1.05 million.
Rounding out the Golden State’s major metro areas is San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, where the required household income actually fell annually, dropping 5.5% to $256,000. Home prices fell as well, with the median listing price dropping 10.7% to $1.027 million.
“In areas like San Francisco, home prices have fallen enough to offset rising mortgage rates, and the income needed to buy a home has dropped. In other markets, like San Jose and Sacramento, home price declines have been more modest and rising mortgage rates have pushed required incomes higher despite lower home prices,” Hale said. “In Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego rising home prices and mortgage rates have combined to push required incomes higher—in some cases like in these California markets, up by double-digits compared to one year ago.”
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Hale added that the majority of the major U.S. metros have seen similar trends to Southern California.
Two other metros also saw the required household income reach above $200,000 in April.
At $226,000, Boston-Cambridge-Newton had the highest required income outside of California, a 9.5% increase from last year. In the area, the median listing price was up 3.7% to $870,000.
Lastly, New York-Newark-Jersey City saw the required household income spike by 15.5% to $218,000. The metro’s median listing price was $769,000, 9.9% higher than a year ago.
Mansion Global is owned by Dow Jones. Both Dow Jones and Realtor.com are owned by News Corp.
