This first part shouldn’t come as much of a surprise: Washington is the nation’s sixth most expensive city in which to buy a house. But here’s something new—to make the purchase, your salary needs to be $62,809.63. Or at least so says a study released yesterday by mortgage-info site HSH.com, which combined median home pricing data from the National Association of Realtors with the site’s independent information on average interest rates to come up with the salary figures for 25 of the country’s largest cities. Predictably pricey San Francisco took first place, with $115,510, followed by San Diego, Los Angeles, New York, and Boston. See the full list with breakdowns by city here.
The salary requirement is meant to cover principal and interest payments on your region’s average home—here, that’s listed at $368,000. And the full explanation of methodology does comes with a disclaimer: “There is no doubt that your income will need to be much higher to cover taxes, insurances, and other expenses to live in the home, plus any other debts you might have.” Well, yes. But discounting those extra costs—does that $62k figure seem tenable for our area, or are you as doubtful as we are? Sound off in the comments.
