The most -- and least -- affordable cities

If you adhere to the common-sense rule that rent should account for about 28 percent of your monthly expenses, steer clear of the 105 cities the Bloomberg Global City Housing Affordability Index ranked – you couldn’t live in any of them.

That said, affordability improved in 51 cities, which improved their rankings in comparison with 2012 prices. The remaining 48 cities saw change head south in this year’s rankings, according to Bloomberg News.

One definitive trend is that North American cities dominated the top 10 most affordable cities in the rankings, though the top most affordably city will likely come as a surprise. In the meantime, cities in emerging markets were the most un-affordable housing markets.

New York is roughly in the middle of the ranking this year, however London took the crown this year for the status of being the least-affordable city in Western Europe.

Out of all 105 cities included in the rankings, here are the top five least-affordable cities for housing and the top five most affordable cities:

Least affordable
1 Caracas