After learning that not only teachers, but also doctors and engineers cannot afford to buy a home in San Francisco, it may not come as a surprise that the city has been ranked the nation's least affordable for the middle class in a new report by real estate company Trulia. The study examined what percentage of the city's homes for sale would be considered affordable for a household making the median income, which in San Francisco is $84,129. A household making that salary can afford a home priced at $440,000, but only 14% of homes in the city fall at that prices or less. The median size of a home affordable for a household with the median income is only 1,050 square feet.
Owning a home in California is, according to the study, becoming increasingly difficult for the middle class. Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Ventura County, San Jose and Oakland also made the top ten least affordable list, although in Oakland 52% of homes are affordable for the city's middle class. Ohio, on the other hand, is home to the three most affordable cities: Akron, Toledo and Dayton. Places like Atlanta and Denver are also more affordable.
There are pockets of other cities that are even less affordable than San Francisco. In Los Angeles' San Gabriel Valley only 14% of homes are affordable, in Brooklyn just 12% of homes are, and in Manhattan a minuscule 2.3% of homes are affordable for the middle class. The study also broke down affordability by level of education. In San Francisco, 3% of homes are affordable to those with a high school degree or less. Even a graduate degree doesn't offer San Franciscans assurance that they will one day buy a home: only 44% of homes are affordable to those with advanced degrees. A common theme among cities with unaffordable housing? None of them build very many new homes.
· Where Buying a Home is Within the Reach of the Middle Class [Trulia]
· San Francisco is Now Completely Unaffordable for Teachers [Curbed SF]
· Even Doctors and Engineers Can't Afford to Buy in SF [Curbed SF]
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