What you have to earn to buy a typical house in San Diego
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San Diego has long been an expensive place to buy a home, but a typical house is getting further out of reach, per a new analysis from Redfin.
Driving the news: You need to make $241,372 a year to afford the mortgage on a median-priced home in the San Diego metro area, which was $885,000 as of August, according to Redfin.
- That's almost 30% more than the income needed last year to afford a median-priced home.
- And it's more than double the county's roughly $100,000 median household income.
Why it matters: Americans haven't felt this discouraged about home buying in decades, Axios' Brianna Crane reports.
What's happening: Housing costs have continued to soar because of high mortgage rates and rising home prices, in part due to low inventory, according to Redfin.
- 30-year fixed mortgage rates continue to hover around 8%, the highest in two decades.
- The median monthly mortgage payment in San Diego is $6,034.
Context: Six years ago, the median home price was about $545,000.
- That was a record for the San Diego housing market at the time, driven by price jumps in the resale single-family home market.
Zoom out: A six-figure income is needed to buy a home in half of major metros in the country, per Redfin.
- Six California cities are at the top of the list, with San Diego at 5th and San Francisco at No. 1, with buyers needing an income of more than $400,000.
- The median income in the U.S. is $75,000 a year, but you need to make $115,000 to afford the typical home.
Methodology: To determine affordability, Redfin took an area's median monthly mortgage payment, then calculated how much a buyer there would need to make to spend no more than 30% of their income on housing.
- The formula assumes buyers are coming in with a 20% down payment.
Be smart: The San Diego Housing Commission offers deferred-payment loans and downpayment and closing cost assistance to help low- and moderate-income families buy their first homes in cities across the county.
- There are also specific programs for people of color looking to buy a place in the city of San Diego.