South Floridians need to make $65,120 per year to afford a mortgage: report

There’s no question that South Florida’s housing market is becoming unaffordable for many of its residents, but a new report shows the gap could be closing.

According to a second-quarter survey from mortgage info site HSH.com, a South Florida homebuyer would have to pull in at least $65,120 per year to afford mortgage payments on a median-priced home. The report assumes a 20 percent down payment and bases its data off two key metrics: mortgage rates and median home prices.

That required income makes South Florida the 11th most expensive metro area to buy a home in the country, behind Sacramento and Portland. It also doesn’t take into consideration that the median income of Miami-Dade ($43,099), Broward ($51,574) and Palm Beach counties ($52,878) make it difficult for a single person to purchase a home.

At the top of the list of most unaffordable areas was San Francisco, where the report says residents would have to make $161,947 per year to comfortably make home payments.

But there’s one bright spot for South Florida, according to the report: between the first and second quarter, $1,500 was shaved off the required salary for a home purchase, marking the largest drop in the country.

Contributing to that decline were cheaper mortgage rates and home prices. Mortgage rates in the region dipped .17 percent to 3.76 percent, while the median home prices across all three counties fell just under 1 percent to $310,000. — Sean Stewart-Muniz