Here's How Much You Need To Make To Buy An NYC-Area Home

NEW YORK, NY — New York City and its surrounding suburbs make up the fifth-most expensive area to buy a home in the country, a report released this month says. New Yorkers must make at least $99,151 to buy a home for the median sale price of $419,100, according to the website HSH.com, which tracks mortgage rates.

New York is the most expensive metro area on the East Coast. The California cities San Jose, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles all outpace New York's median home price and the salary needed to cover mortgage payments, property taxes and homeowner's insurance.

The New York area's median home price for the third quarter of this year was about 5.4 percent higher than the same period in 2016, HSH found. All but one of the 50 real estate markets the site reviewed showed year-to-year home price increases.

HSH includes a huge swath of suburbs in the New York area, including Long Island, Westchester County, northern New Jersey, parts of Dutchess and Orange counties in the Hudson Valley and even part of Pike County, Penn. As Brick Underground noted, that likely drives down HSH's calculated median home price and the income needed to buy a home.

Houses and apartments within the five boroughs can be much more expensive than $419,000. U.S. Census data puts the average New York City home value at more than $529,000, according to the finance website SmartAsset.

Sale prices in some places can be even higher — the average Manhattan home sold for more than $2 million from July to September, a Douglas Elliman Real Estate report found. By comparison, the median home value in Pike County, Penn. is $144,000, according to the real estate site Zillow.

Read HSH's full real estate report here.

(Lead image via Pixabay)