Using the National Association of Realtors’ data on housing affordability, Business Insider gathered a list of the US metro areas where the minimum salary required to qualify for a mortgage, after a 20 percent down payment, is highest. What they found was that the salary needed to qualify in the top-five metro areas — four of which are located in California — exceeds $100,000.
Here’s what it you need to be earning to buy in New York, Miami and Los Angeles.
The New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania metro areas ranked 13th overall in BI’s list. With a population of 20,182,305 and a median home cost of $414,000, the salary you need to buy is $76,613.
The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, Florida, metro area ranked down at number 20. With a much lower population of 6,012,331 and median home cost of $335,000 the salary a sunshine state buyer needs is $61,994.
Meanwhile in Los Angles-Long Beach-Glendale, California weighed in at number seven. The population is 10,170,292 and the median home cost was $514,000. That means that the salary you’ll needed to buy is $95,156.
If you were wondering about what metro area took the top spot, well, that would be San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California. The salary needed to buy there was calculated to be $218,996. [BI] —Christopher Cameron