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The income needed to afford a San Diego home keeps rising

  • desiraer2
  • Feb 3
  • 2 min read


Data: Redfin; Note: Data assumes homebuyer spends no more than 30% of income on monthly mortgage payment; Chart: Axios Visuals


You need to earn nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year to afford a typical San Diego home, according to a recent Redfin report.


Why it matters: It keeps getting harder to buy a house in San Diego County, even for people with high salaries.


By the numbers: It takes $242,560 to afford the mortgage on a median-priced home in the metro area, per Redfin's analysis.


  • That's up from about $124,000 in 2020, and $95,000 in 2014.


  • The median home sale price last year was $905,463, about a 7% increase from 2023. The median monthly hosing payment was about $6,000.


The fine print: Redfin's data assumes a homebuyer spends no more than 30% of their income on monthly mortgage payments.


Reality check: The gap between San Diego's incomes and its housing prices is closing, but homeownership is still out of reach for many families.


  • San Diego County's median household income was around $108,000 in 2024, which means someone would've had to spend more than 67% of their earnings on monthly housing costs if they bought a median-priced home.


State of play: By that measure, California boasts the five least affordable major metros.


  • Homebuyers with median incomes in Los Angeles would need to spend 77.6% on housing, followed by San Francisco (76.2%), Anaheim (75.9%), San Jose (73.9%) and San Diego.


Rust Belt metros are among the most affordable, including Pittsburgh (25.3%), Detroit (25.5%) and Cleveland (26.4%).


The big picture: Elevated mortgage rates and record prices are shutting many homebuyers out of the market nationwide, Axios' Sami Sparber reports.


  • It takes about $117,000 a year to afford a median-priced U.S. home – a record high in Redfin data going back to 2012.


What we're watching: The San Diego real estate market is set to record its slowest sales year thanks to mortgage rates and high home prices in 2024.



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