Want to know EXACTLY how much home you can afford?
This week, we want to talk about housing affordability and share something that we find fascinating and very insightful, The Housing Affordability Index. This can be found on the California Association of Realtors website, www.car.org. This index maps out just how much money (on average) a person would need to make per year to be able to afford a median priced home in each county of the San Francisco Bay Area.
In the first column, is the percentage of residents that could afford to buy a median priced home in Quarter 1 of 2021. In Napa County, because of the demand for housing, this number has gone down from 34% in 2020 to just 24%. You can also see that in order to qualify for a median priced home of $901,500, you would need to make about $164,400 per year. In San Mateo County, the minimum qualifying income is a whopping $337,200 per year (wow!!!), and Solano County, our neighbor to the east, is much more affordable by comparison. To purchase the average priced home in Solano, you or your family would need to make about $95,600 per year.
Now, for most people who live and work in the area, these numbers can be a bit alarming. But even if you don’t make over $100,000 per year, hope is not lost! These prices reflect the median price of homes in the area, meaning that half the homes sold above that price and half sold below that price. If you desire to become a homeowner, I encourage you to be empowered by the information. There are so many different paths to homeownership, often times we have to get a bit creative. This can mean starting small by purchasing a condo, purchasing in less desirable area or building up equity by improving your home little by little and then selling to move up to something nicer.
We have helped some amazing families get into homes by being creative. This can mean finding off market deals, utilizing first time home buyer and down payment assistance programs, or finding that diamond in the rough. Where there's a will, there's a way! Feel free to reach out to discuss your options. We would love to help.
Author: Nicola Roualdes, Realtor
Have a property that needs to be sold? Or do you need to buy a property? We're here to help! Send us a message or call us and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible.
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