NationStates Jolt Archive

The third annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey was published the other day. The Survey covers urban housing markets in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United
States.

It works out how long it would take a person living in a particular location and earning the median income for that place to buy a house.
In other words, median house price divided by median household income.

Most expensive place is Orange County, LA. It'll take ya 11.4 years to buy a house there.
Least expensive is Fort Wayne, IN which will take just 2 years of your income.

Here's the ten worst:
1 United States Los Angeles-Orange County, CA 11.4
2 United States San Diego, CA 10.5
3 United States Honolulu, HI 10.3
4 United States San Francisco, CA 10.1
5 United States Ventura County, CA 9.4
6 United States Stockton, CA 8.6
7 Australia Sydney 8.5
8 United States San Jose, CA 8.4
9 United Kingdom London (GLA) 8.3
10 United Kingdom Bournemouth-Dorset 8.2

Here's the ten (ok, 14 if you want to be a pedant about it) best:
1 United States Fort Wayne, IN 2.0
1 Canada Regina 2.0
1 United States Youngstown, OH 2.0
4 United States Buffalo, NY 2.3
4 United States Dayton, OH 2.3
4 United States Indianapolis, IN 2.3
4 United States Rochester, NY 2.3
8 United States Akron, OH 2.4
9 United States Grand Rapids, MI 2.5
9 United States Omaha, NE-IA 2.5
9 Canada Quebec 2.5
9 United States Toledo, OH 2.5
9 United States Wichita, KS 2.5
9 Canada Winnipeg 2.5


And here's the pdf with everything:
http://www.demographia.com/dhi-ix2005q3.pdf

Depressingly (for me) NZ is one of the worst (at 6.9 years) - and with house prices moving up by >10% a year every year for the last 10 years and no end in sight, it ain't gonna get any better.

Link?

hmmm...Belfast has the 6th highest house prices in the UK (31st in the world), but the 5th (I think) lowest median income in the UK.

Something's not right there.

My city ranked 11th last year, taking only 2.7 years.

146 International rank 97 national 2.5 year

Housing?

7.2. Bleh.

On a related note, 20ish years ago, my parents mought this small apartment in a burned out co-op building for very cheap in a lowerclass nieghborhood in Brooklyn. Today the apartment is in a up-and-coming, trendy, yuppie section of Brooklyn and we stand to possibly get a couple hundred thousand dollars for it :eek:!
(which we will then burn paying for my college education:rolleyes:)

The third annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey was published the other day. The Survey covers urban housing markets in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United
States.

It works out how long it would take a person living in a particular location and earning the median income for that place to buy a house.
In other words, median house price divided by median household income.

Most expensive place is Orange County, LA. It'll take ya 11.4 years to buy a house there.
Least expensive is Fort Wayne, IN which will take just 2 years of your income.

Here's the ten worst:
1 United States Los Angeles-Orange County, CA 11.4
2 United States San Diego, CA 10.5
3 United States Honolulu, HI 10.3
4 United States San Francisco, CA 10.1
5 United States Ventura County, CA 9.4
6 United States Stockton, CA 8.6
7 Australia Sydney 8.5
8 United States San Jose, CA 8.4
9 United Kingdom London (GLA) 8.3
10 United Kingdom Bournemouth-Dorset 8.2

Here's the ten (ok, 14 if you want to be a pedant about it) best:
1 United States Fort Wayne, IN 2.0
1 Canada Regina 2.0
1 United States Youngstown, OH 2.0
4 United States Buffalo, NY 2.3
4 United States Dayton, OH 2.3
4 United States Indianapolis, IN 2.3
4 United States Rochester, NY 2.3
8 United States Akron, OH 2.4
9 United States Grand Rapids, MI 2.5
9 United States Omaha, NE-IA 2.5
9 Canada Quebec 2.5
9 United States Toledo, OH 2.5
9 United States Wichita, KS 2.5
9 Canada Winnipeg 2.5


And here's the pdf with everything:
http://www.demographia.com/dhi-ix2005q3.pdf

Depressingly (for me) NZ is one of the worst (at 6.9 years) - and with house prices moving up by >10% a year every year for the last 10 years and no end in sight, it ain't gonna get any better.

heres news Sydney is no longer at the top Perth is now

Housing?
Those odd wooden (or brick) boxes people keep their possessions in and retire to at the end of the day to eat, sleep, defecate and procreate (though not necessarily all at the same time).
Look around you. They're surprisingly common.

America: From Extreme to Extreme, we've got you covered.

Stockton? Stockton? Stockton is #6? Seriously? I thought you had to pay people to live there...

hmmm...Belfast has the 6th highest house prices in the UK (31st in the world), but the 5th (I think) lowest median income in the UK.

Something's not right there.

If I never took a day off and worked seven days a week fifty-two weeks a year and payed no tax and spent no money ever, I could buy an average house in Belfast in... October 2017.

top 15:(

Well the PDF just froze...

Ah.

United States Pittsburgh, PA 2.6

But really, what sane person would ever want to live in Western PA?

United States New York, NY-NJ,-CT-PA 7.2

United States Allentown, PA-NJ 4.0

Ah! Closer to home.. United States Scranton-Wilkes Barre, PA 2.9

Philadelphia, PA-NJ-DE-MD 4.1 $236,200 $58,300

Scranton-Wilkes Barre, PA 2.9 $122,900 $41,700
Seems right.

well, adelaide is definitely not the worst place in australia, according to this.
then again, who'd want to live in the cities that are considered more affordable than adelaide?

Here's the ten (ok, 14 if you want to be a pedant about it) best:
1 United States Fort Wayne, IN 2.0
1 Canada Regina 2.0
1 United States Youngstown, OH 2.0
4 United States Buffalo, NY 2.3
4 United States Dayton, OH 2.3
4 United States Indianapolis, IN 2.3
4 United States Rochester, NY 2.3
8 United States Akron, OH 2.4
9 United States Grand Rapids, MI 2.5
9 United States Omaha, NE-IA 2.5
9 Canada Quebec 2.5
9 United States Toledo, OH 2.5
9 United States Wichita, KS 2.5
9 Canada Winnipeg 2.5

.

Want to know why Ohio ranks so cheap? Because it is one of the ugliest, most boring places to live in the US. JMHO

Want to know why Ohio ranks so cheap? Because it is one of the ugliest, most boring places to live in the US. JMHO

Hey! Wait a minute...no, you're right.

We're not Kansas, though.

Of course Hawaii is ranked up there... there's limited spaces and only ONE island is still making it.

Wow. Vancouver is the single most unnafordable place in Canada by a long shot at 7.7 years of income for a house.
I can't say I'm surprized though. An older smallish house on my block sold last year for like 800 000. Which is insane.

Those odd wooden (or brick) boxes people keep their possessions in and retire to at the end of the day to eat, sleep, defecate and procreate (though not necessarily all at the same time).
Look around you. They're surprisingly common.
Yeah but it ain't exactly my house yet for one and two what if i lived in a Cardboard box?
Or Under a bridge...

Ooh, I heard on the radio that the "average" (mean, median, mode? Who knows?) UK house price was £222,000. That means that, if I paid no taxes and spent no money, it'd take me 15 years and 7 months to buy an average house. August 2022, Huzzah!

The third annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey was published the other day. The Survey covers urban housing markets in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United
States.

It works out how long it would take a person living in a particular location and earning the median income for that place to buy a house.
In other words, median house price divided by median household income.

Most expensive place is Orange County, LA. It'll take ya 11.4 years to buy a house there.
Least expensive is Fort Wayne, IN which will take just 2 years of your income.

Here's the ten worst:
1 United States Los Angeles-Orange County, CA 11.4
2 United States San Diego, CA 10.5
3 United States Honolulu, HI 10.3
4 United States San Francisco, CA 10.1
5 United States Ventura County, CA 9.4
6 United States Stockton, CA 8.6
7 Australia Sydney 8.5
8 United States San Jose, CA 8.4
9 United Kingdom London (GLA) 8.3
10 United Kingdom Bournemouth-Dorset 8.2

Here's the ten (ok, 14 if you want to be a pedant about it) best:
1 United States Fort Wayne, IN 2.0
1 Canada Regina 2.0
1 United States Youngstown, OH 2.0
4 United States Buffalo, NY 2.3
4 United States Dayton, OH 2.3
4 United States Indianapolis, IN 2.3
4 United States Rochester, NY 2.3
8 United States Akron, OH 2.4
9 United States Grand Rapids, MI 2.5
9 United States Omaha, NE-IA 2.5
9 Canada Quebec 2.5
9 United States Toledo, OH 2.5
9 United States Wichita, KS 2.5
9 Canada Winnipeg 2.5


And here's the pdf with everything:
http://www.demographia.com/dhi-ix2005q3.pdf

Depressingly (for me) NZ is one of the worst (at 6.9 years) - and with house prices moving up by >10% a year every year for the last 10 years and no end in sight, it ain't gonna get any better.

interesting but kinda flawed. for instance two of the places i know about are Bournemouth and Cardiff in the UK, both on the 25 most unaffordable list. the former is full of retired people on fixed incomes, which will bring the median income down. however they live for the most part in rented apartments (there's hundereds of OAP apartment blocks on the drive down to the beach). this investment probably drives the median land price up, but only really for those areas. the actual residential areas are probably more normally priced, and the people there probably earn more.


cardiff is a similar story with almost 30,000 students living in the city pushing the median income down compared to most of the rest of the residents i'll bet.


the study should have done median house prices in an area vs the average national income, as this would have given a clearer picture of what's actually unaffordable should you want to move there. imho.


for example, winchester and parts of london are ridiculously overpriced for property. but the people living in those areas will be earning above average earnings anyway. thus comparing average earnings nationally with these places would have been more illuminating, i think

When I bought my house it would have taken me 3.5 years to pay for it.

Since the housing prices have gone through the roof it is now worth 9 times my salary - no wonder no one can afford to buy in the UK:(

Ooh, I heard on the radio that the "average" (mean, median, mode? Who knows?) UK house price was £222,000. That means that, if I paid no taxes and spent no money, it'd take me 15 years and 7 months to buy an average house. August 2022, Huzzah!
OVer £200,000? I thought it was just about to breach that mark this year?

I would have thought New York to be up in the top 10 most expensive....

OVer £200,000? I thought it was just about to breach that mark this year?

I'm certain that on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 programme yesterday afternoon he said £222,000. On a bit about old people taking money out of their houses to pay for fun and games.

Denver came in at 4.3, in the "seriously unaffordable" category, but I have to ask who the hell buys a house for cash these days? You work out financing, make a down payment, and pay off the mortgage. So right now, my house would cost me about four times my annual salary, but when I bought it I only had to cough up about 2/3 of my current annual salary. I pay about $1500 a month on the mortgage but a large part of that is interest and I get to deduct that from my income taxes.

Where I live, housing is VERY, VERY expensive. It costs you almost one million for only a mildly extravagant home, whereas places I've looked at up in Kentucky are a forth of the price, and look better.


One of the many reasons, to me, why Florida sucks.

it's all relative...my home has more than doubled in value in 6 years but my income has nearly tripled as well...so I'm about the same spot and still living in a top 15 city...when I retire I can sell my home, move to small city and do very well financially...

Wow. Vancouver is the single most unnafordable place in Canada by a long shot at 7.7 years of income for a house.
I can't say I'm surprized though. An older smallish house on my block sold last year for like 800 000. Which is insane.

same here...2,000,000 for a 1960's 1,000sqft bungalow, but there are oil barons making millions per year here, so if the location is good 2 mill is small change for them...

I'm certain that on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 programme yesterday afternoon he said £222,000. On a bit about old people taking money out of their houses to pay for fun and games.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6233339.stm

Average house price was apparently £186,035 at the end of 2006, up 9.9% from the end of 2005. It'll only take you 13 years to afford a house! Though at this rate, average house price in 2020 will be about £750,000...

I'm hoping there's a massive bust in the housing market in a few years, just when I'm looking to buy my first house. :p

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6233339.stm

Average house price was apparently £186,035 at the end of 2006, up 9.9% from the end of 2005. It'll only take you 13 years to afford a house! Though at this rate, average house price in 2020 will be about £750,000...

I'm hoping there's a massive bust in the housing market in a few years, just when I'm looking to buy my first house. :p

Pah. Jeremy Vine, you have failed me for the last time.

Fingers crossed. There has to be some sort of change, it's getting beyond silly.
My current plan is to wait for my parents to die, then split the sale of their house with my sister. Ho hum, eh?

Anyway, stuff to do... /me flees the forum for the weekend.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6233339.stm

Average house price was apparently £186,035 at the end of 2006, up 9.9% from the end of 2005. It'll only take you 13 years to afford a house! Though at this rate, average house price in 2020 will be about £750,000...

I'm hoping there's a massive bust in the housing market in a few years, just when I'm looking to buy my first house. :p

when there is bust in the housing market there is also a bust in the economy as well...so unless you're in a secure job you may not be able to buy a home...

I've seen that happen before, I could've bought an entire 48 unit condo complex for a $1 when the market collapsed, a great deal but paying the mortgage on 48 units wasn't feasible...