CATHERINE REAGOR

Can you afford it? The income you need to buy a median-priced house varies wildly across U.S.

Catherine Reagor
The Republic | azcentral.com

Can you afford to buy a median-priced house on your salary?

It might be a stretch in many elite coastal cities, but there's always the nation's heartland to consider.

To calculate affordability, consumer-loan researcher HSH.com used the National Association of Realtors' second-quarter data for median home prices and HSH.com's second-quarter average interest rate for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages. Researchers calculated how much of a homeowner's salary it would take to afford the base cost of owning a home.

Phoenix ranked in the top third of housing affordability.

Here are the 27 metropolitan areas, ranked by the salary needed in those areas to afford a median-priced home. Pittsburgh is the most affordable; San Francisco, the least.

  1. Pittsburgh - $33,128.20
  2. Cleveland - $33,881.55
  3. Cincinnati - $35,864.16
  4. St. Louis - $36,020.47
  5. Detroit - $36,236.03
  6. Tampa - $37,913.32
  7. Atlanta - $38,005.28
  8. Phoenix - $41,250.52
  9. Orlando - $43,163.95
  10. San Antonio - $46,304.97
  11. Minneapolis - $49,255.87
  12. Dallas - $50,102.98
  13. Houston - $51,782.56
  14. Philadelphia - $54,323.02
  15. Baltimore - $57,668.41
  16. Chicago - $59,315.49
  17. Sacramento - $59,778.52
  18. Miami - $60,774.40
  19. Portland - $61,706.20
  20. Denver - $63,664.45
  21. Seattle - $74,674.89
  22. Boston - $84,572.32
  23. Washington - $84,999.14
  24. Los Angeles - $86,800.40
  25. New York City - 89.939.45
  26. San Diego - $100,091.74
  27. San Francisco - $150,511.88