California continues to have some of the least affordable housing markets in the U.S.
Six of the top 10 counties where buyers need to dedicate the greatest share of their annual wages toward a home are in the Golden State. That’s according to data from ATTOM, which analyzed home affordability in U.S. counties with at least 100,000 residents and 50 sales during the second quarter.
In Marin County, residents need 120 percent of their annualized wages to purchase and maintain a house there, the greatest share in the nearly 580 counties the data provider studied. In the second quarter, the median home price in the county was $1.2 million, an 11 percent year-over-year gain. That means the median buyer would need an annual income of just under $400,000 to purchase a home with a 20 percent down payment, per ATTOM.
Typically, lenders would like this figure to be around 28 percent, according to ATTOM.
Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, Orange, Monterey and Santa Barbara are the other California counties that comprise the top 10.
Brooklyn’s Kings County is the fourth in the country by share of wages needed to buy and keep up a house. A buyer there would need to dedicate 109 percent of their yearly income toward a home. They also would need a salary of about $234,000. The median sale price during the second quarter was $993,000, but that figure is flat from the same time last year.
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Across the U.S., home prices have never been higher. However, that growth appears to be moderating.
To buy and upkeep a median-priced home, a U.S. homebuyer would need to spend about 34 percent of their yearly pay — a nearly 2 percentage-point increase from the first quarter. That’s also above the recommended 28 percent threshold.
Affordability has been further constrained by barely increasing wage growth. ATTOM noted that though the U.S. median home price has climbed about 56 percent since 2020, the average wage has grown by 27 percent, as of the most recent data from the end of 2024.