The end of February a national report came out from Zillow which determined today’s homebuyers need to make more than $106,000 to “comfortably afford” a residential property purchase on average. That sum is 80 percent more than the money required for the same purchase in January 2020, when a household earning $59,000 annually could “comfortably” afford the monthly mortgage on a typical home by spending no more than 30 percent of its income with a 10 percent down payment. Inflation and mortgage rates around 7 percent (and higher earlier this year), combined with the COVID nesting period, have driven that number up. In San Diego, because our median house price is so much higher than national numbers, a household needs to make somewhere around $250,000 to comfortably afford a residential property purchase priced at the median value. That doesn't mean you can't purchase a great property below the median if you make less but the reality of living in San Diego is it will cost you.
Time to Buy