The Top 20 Most Unaffordable Cities
Toughest Regions to Save Money
Seventeen of the top 20 most unaffordable U . S . cities to buy a home are located in either the counties of Los Angeles , Orange , or San Diego in Southern California . The other three cities are in Northern California . This is a national study created by the real estate tracking agency Construction Coverage , not just for California .
This data report compiled by Construction Coverage took a closer look at cities of all sizes , while focusing on the ratio of home prices to household income as the core basis for determining how affordable a region is these days .
The top three most unaffordable cities in this study were as follows :
1 . Newport Beach , CA : Median home price of $ 3.23 million ; median household income of $ 127,353 ; and a home pricetohousehold income ratio of 25.4 .
2 . Palo Alto , CA : Median home price of $ 3.41 million ; median household income of $ 179,707 ; and a home pricetohousehold income ratio of 19 .
3 . Glendale , CA : Median home price of $ 1.17 million ; median household income of $ 77,483 ; and a home pricetohousehold income ratio of 15.2 .
There are many regions across the nation with median home prices much higher than these top three unaffordable housing regions . However , those regions generally have much higher household income to make the home pricetohousehold income much lower .
The California cities in the top 20 of the report are :
1 . Newport Beach 2 . Palo Alto 3 . Glendale 4 . Los Angeles 5 . El Monte 6 . Costa Mesa 7 . El Cajon 8 . Inglewood 9 . Hawthorne 10 . Sunnyvale 11 . Irvine 12 . Huntington Beach 13 . Torrance 14 . Garden Grove 15 . San Jose 16 . Anaheim 17 . Long Beach 18 . East Los Angeles 19 . Carlsbad 20 . Tustin
States With the Highest Home PricetoIncome Ratios
Top 10 States Ratio
1 . Hawaii 9.1 2 . California 8.4
3 . Montana 6.6 4 . Oregon 6.4 5 . Massachusetts 6.3 6 . Washington 6.3 7 . Idaho 6.1 8 . Colorado 6.0 9 . Nevada 5.9 10 . Utah 5.7
Source : Construction Coverage
The national personal savings rate has dropped from record highs of over 20 % in 2020 and 2021 to 3.8 % as of January 2024 , according to Forbes . Many Americans these days couldn ’ t come up with $ 400 in cash for an unexpected emergency , partly due to rising grocery , gas , utilities , housing ( own or rent ), clothing , restaurant , entertainment costs , and how high or not the state income taxes are there .
Let ’ s focus on how high certain foods have risen since 2019 to better understand why things seem so much more unaffordable these days :
1 . Cocoa : + 345 % 2 . Orange juice : + 260 % 3 . Olive oil : + 219 % 4 . Sugar : + 120 % 5 . Fruit snacks : + 77 % 6 . Cooking oil : + 54 % 7 . Chocolate bars : + 52 % 8 . Apple sauce : + + 51 % 9 . Beef : + 51 % 10 . Mayonnaise : + 50 %
Source : The Kobeissi Letter
The RiversideSan BernardinoOntario metropolitan area is ranked as the # 1 most challenging place in America to save money with the Los AngelesLongAnaheim metropolitan region ranking second .
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