U.S. Housing Affordability
How affordable is housing? The answer varies based on the area of the U.S. But first, what is the definition of affordable? One way to look at it is the ratio of the median household salary to the median price of a single family home in a given area. When graphed this way, there is a lot of variation in how large this ratio is, as seen below on the chart which plots the data of the 50 most populous U.S. cities.
Choose A City
x income to purchase a house
Median house price: $
Median household income: $
Recommended income to comfortably afford a house : $
Lowest Ratio
1.32
Detroit
Highest Ratio
18.49
San Francisco
U.S. Median Ratio
3.46
Midwestern Cities Average Ratio
Southern Cities Average Ratio
Northeast Cities Average Ratio
Western Cities Average Ratio
The median income-to-house price ratio in the U.S. is 3.46.
Experts recommend that a house's price should be ideally 2.5 to 3 times a household's income, and that the price should not exceed 4 times the household's income.
However, of the 50 most populous cities in the U.S., in only 10 of them can a household making the median income for the city to purchase a median-priced home without paying more than 4 times its income.
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