Comment by Brystephor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Brystephor | Hacker News Reader

> Homebuyers needed a $114,000 salary to afford a typical home in September — assuming a 7.2% mortgage rate with 20% down on a median priced home of $412,001 — according to real estate brokerage Redfin Corp.

Interesting. I wonder what it is for Seattle then.

> The median listing home price in Seattle, WA was $829K in September 2023, trending down -2.5% year-over-year. The median listing home price per square foot was $584. The median home sold price was $799.5K.

Says redfin (https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Seattle_WA...).

Seattle median household income is ~115,000 according to Seattle times (https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/seattle-media...). This means that one of the highest earning cities in the U.S. isn't able to comfortably afford a home, even at median prices. So then I wonder how many people are moving into Seattle with high incomes in order to buy homes and such.

It's also very surprising to me that the median home sold price in Seattle is more than New York City.

I think you can just roughly double the salary there.

i.e. to afford a home roughly twice the price of the median in that analysis, it would take ~$230k salary to afford a home in Seattle.

My wife and I combined make about that, and that seems about right. Though, IMO the debt-to-income ratios that they consider "normal" for these types of analyses leave one further extended than I'd like to be. (Childcare isn't cheap!)

even at median prices

Given current interest rates, an American getting a mortgage today is going to be paying something like $2,000/month more just in interest than they were in early 2021, which is when I bought my house in Seattle.

At $799,000, you're looking at a monthly payment around $5,800/month. The definition of being cost-burdened on housing is when you spend more than 30% of your gross income on housing. That means you'd need a gross monthly income of $19,333 or $232,000 annually to not be rent-burdened in Seattle buying a median priced home.

> It's also very surprising to me that the median home sold price in Seattle is more than New York City.

Surprised me too but then it seems more reasonable when you see media listing home price per sqft in New York is $780 compared to Seattle's $584. New Yorkers are just buying smaller places.

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