Here's The Salary You Need To Buy A Home In Dallas

DALLAS, TX — Despite its many housing options, Dallas isn't a cheap place to live, and continued growth isn't helping that trend. The capitol of the Silicon Prairie, Dallas has drawn a number of new corporations to the area. With those come new jobs, more employees and a spike in housing costs.

In fact, HSH.com estimates home prices rose 8.03 percent in the last year. That means a median-priced home (plus principal, interest, taxes and insurance) now costs about $249,000. To buy a home of that value on a 30-year mortgage, you'd need to make an annual salary of at least $59,517.58. That comes out to a monthly payment of $1,388.74.

HSH.com, the nation's largest publisher of mortgage and consumer loan information, produced a list of the top 50 metropolitan areas in the country, and Dallas checks in at No. 18 in the country and second among the Texas cities of Austin and Houston.

HSH took a look at the top 50 metro areas and the median home price. For Dallas, the average home is $249,000. Houston came in at No. 21 with an average home price of $233,900, which would require an annual salary of $56,600.09. Austin is the most costly Texas city at No. 14 with an average home price of $296,400, meaning a salary of $67,440.63 would be par.

San Jose, California tops the list with a $1,165,000 median home price, which equals out to a salary of $216,181.25. Monthly payments for those homes round up to a steep $5,044.

For the calculations, HSH.com uses the National Association of Realtors' 2017 third-quarter data for median-home prices, national mortgage rate data derived from weekly surveys by Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association of America for 30-year fixed rate mortgages and available property tax and homeowners insurance costs to determine the annual salary it takes to afford the base cost of owning a home (principal, interest, property tax and homeowner's insurance, or PITI) in the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas.

"Affordability pressures are frustratingly occurring in places where jobs are plentiful and incomes are rising," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "Without a significant boost in new and existing inventory to alleviate price growth, job creation could slow in high cost areas in upcoming years if residents begin exiling to more affordable parts of the country," Yun added.

"Unfortunately, the pace of new listings were unable to replace what was quickly sold. Home shoppers had little to choose from, and many had out outbid others in order to close on a home. The end result was a slowdown in sales from earlier in the year, steadfast price growth and weakening affordability conditions."

Of the 50 metro area, Pittsburgh is the cheapest with a salary of $35,205.49 needed to buy a $146,000 home.

Story compiled with help from Scott McDonald, Patch.
Lead image: Home for sale at 4708 Thunder Rd, Dallas, TX 75244. Via Realtor.com.