Chances are that if you're looking to buy a home in the D.C. metropolitan area, you may be scared of the home prices. Whether you're a first time homebuyer, moving up to a larger home, buying an investment property, or relocating to the D.C. area, you're spending some time and effort tracking the home prices throughout the region. You might look at the prices of homes coming across your computer screen after doing a home search or signing up to receive listing e-mails and shriek!
As with any purchase that involves 6 (or more) digits after the dollar sign, fear most likely is weighing in to the decision-making process.
Some education about the market can help dissipate some of that fear.
D.C. Homebuyers: Take some solace in knowing that while home prices may not make the D.C. area the most affordable market, D.C. area real estate is far from being the least affordable.
According to a CNNMoney Report, here are the five Most Affordable metro areas to buy a home:
- Indianapolis
- Detroit
- Dayton, OH
- Youngstown, OH
- Akron, OH
The 5 Least Affordable Metro Areas are:
- New York City
- San Francisco
- Honolulu
- Santa Ana, CA
- Los Angeles
The report compared the median price of homes with the median household income in all the metropolitan regions to come up with the most affordable and least affordable places to purchase a home. For example, in Indianapolis, where the median price of a home is $106,000 and the median household income is $68,100, 95.7% of median income households can afford a median priced home. Contrast that with New York City, where the median home price is $425,000 and the median income is $64,800 -- only 19.7% can afford the median priced home!
I took a look at the D.C. area numbers. Household income is very high in the D.C. metropolitan region - $102,700 median household income. The average sales price of a home in the 4th quarter of 2009 was $376,188. So many of our high salaried D.C. area residents can afford these average priced homes, even though the prices are higher than many areas of the country.
As of today, there are over 2,500 homes in Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia that could be yours for under the average price of $376,188.
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I bought here.
That is the reason my son, who lives in DC, rents - the prices are unreal!
That last statement is quite deceitful.
A. I would like to see this analysis done in NORTHWEST DC where you take out the low prices of homes in less desirable areas and
B. You can't do an analysis with the MEDIAN salary (which means the middle) and the AVERAGE home price. That's apples and oranges.