It takes a salary of nearly $115,000 to afford the median-priced home in the United States, according to Redfin.
The salary is the highest-needed income on record and nearly $40,000 more than the typical household earns.
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The typical home is priced at $420,000. While that’s down just a bit from the all-time high in 2022, when you couple the price with current mortgage rates, it puts it out of reach for the average homebuyer.
A $420,000 home with a 7.57% mortgage rate — the current average — puts the typical U.S. homebuyer’s monthly mortgage payment at more than $2,800.
The payment is more than $1,300 higher than the average mortgage payment in 2020, when mortgage rates averaged at 2.94% and the median home price was $329,000, Redfin reported. Three years ago, you needed to earn an annual salary of $75,000 to afford that.
While buyers in every major metro area need to earn more to afford the typical home, some areas have it worse than others.
In Miami and Newark, New Jersey, homebuyers must earn 33% more than just a year ago to afford the same home — putting the necessary income level at $143,000 for Miami and $160,000 for Newark.
In Austin, however, the necessary income has increased the least. Homebuyers need $126,000 to afford the median-priced home, 8% over last year. That’s still less than the average nationwide 5% wage increase from last year.
So, how about San Antonio?
According to Redfin statistics, we needed a 14.5% raise to $87,273 to afford the median-priced home of $319,990. That home would mean a monthly mortgage payment of about $2,182.
Redfin is a real estate brokerage and agent service that provides a popular online home search tool.