It will surprise no one that it can cost an arm and a leg to purchase a home in a pricey town like Los Angeles.
But what may shock you is how much you need to earn annually to make home buying work.
An analysis from the real estate site Redfin finds that would-be homeowners now need to earn $200,000 or more in eight U.S. cities, including L.A. and San Diego.
“High rates are making buyers rethink their priorities, as many of them can no longer afford the home they want in the location they want,” Redfin agent Chelsea Taylor said in a statement.
“So buyers are searching further away from the city in more affordable areas or waiting for prices and/or rates to come down before making a move.”
The average rate for a 30-year fixed loan is hovering near 7%. Mortgage payments rose by an average of nearly 46% over the last year.
The typical U.S. homebuyer needs to pull down about $107,000 a year to afford a median monthly mortgage payment of roughly $2,700.
Only a year ago, according to Redfin, your salary needed to be closer to $74,000.
But some locations are much, much more expensive than others.
In L.A., the median home price is $823,500. That means, by Redfin’s calculation, you need an annual income of $221,592 to make the numbers work.
In San Diego, where the median home price is $790,000, you’re looking at an income threshold of $212,577.
Also on Redfin’s priciest-markets list are San Francisco, San Jose, Anaheim, Oakland and Oxnard.
Making matters worse, at least for potential buyers, is that the inaccessibility of the housing market is forcing more people to remain renters.
That, in turn, is pushing up rents.
Like the Redfin agent said up above, that means more and more people are looking farther afield, which means possibly epic commutes.
Not coincidentally, the market for audiobooks is growing rapidly.
