NYers Must Earn This Much To Buy A Home, Study Says

NEW YORK — You don't have to be a hedge fund billionaire to buy a home in the Big Apple — but you'll still need a six-figure salary. The New York City metropolitan area is the nation's sixth-most expensive market for home buyers, according to a new study.

The study, released Monday by the mortgage resource website HSH.com, used the latest available quarterly home-price information from the National Association of Realtors. It incorporates local property tax and homeowner’s insurance costs to calculate the income needed to qualify for a median-priced home.

A house-hunter needs to earn a salary of $105,684.33 to buy a place in the New York metro area, according to the study, which used home-price data from the fourth quarter of 2018. That's close to twice the city's 2017 median income of $57,782, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.

The New York area's median home sold for $403,900 at the end of last year with a monthly payment of $2,465.97, the study shows. That sales price is up about 2 percent from the same period in the prior year, according to the study.

Median home prices in the fourth quarter of 2018 were lower compared to the third quarter of 2018, according to the study. However, it noted that this was not uncommon and it doesn’t indicate that homes are becoming more affordable.

While San Jose was the least affordable metropolitan area on the list, the Pittsburgh area was the most affordable metropolitan area. The study found that the difference in salary required between the two areas to afford a home was a whopping $217,000.

San Jose was also the only metropolitan area to see a year-over-year decline in median home prices. The median home prices in all 49 other metro areas ranked in the study stayed the same or saw an increase. However, HSH.com says nationally, there appears to be evidence that the rate at which home prices are increasing has started to slow.

The 10 most expensive metros for buying a home are:

1. San Jose (Salary needed: $254,835.73)
2. San Francisco (Salary needed: $198,978.01)
3. San Diego (Salary needed: $131,640.79)
4. Los Angeles (Salary needed: $123,156.01)
5. Boston (Salary needed: $106,789.93)
6. New York City (Salary needed: $105,684.33)
7. Seattle (Salary needed: $105,367.89)
8. Washington D.C. (Salary needed: $94,408.70)
9. Denver (Salary needed: $91,672.45)
10. Portland (Salary needed: $85,173.08)

The 10 least expensive metros for buying a home are:

1. Pittsburgh (Salary needed: $37,659.86)
2. Cleveland (Salary needed: $40,437.72)
3. Oklahoma City (Salary needed: $41,335.41)
4. Memphis (Salary needed: $41,400.93)
5. Indianapolis (Salary needed: $42,288.92)
6. Louisville (Salary needed: $42,323.15)
7. Cincinnati (Salary needed: $43,429.97)
8. St Louis (Salary needed: $44,215.56)
9. Birmingham (Salary needed: $44,593.35)
10. Buffalo (Salary needed: $45,698.05)

You can read the full study from HSH.com here.

Patch editor Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.