Homes In California’s Big Cities Cost 10 Times More Than Average Income

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

Buying a home in California slid further out of reach for many residents in 2023, especially in larger metropolitan areas, according to a recent Harvard University housing study.

The report found some of the highest disparity between wages and housing prices in Northern California.

According to the report released June 20, the Silicon Valley cities of San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Santa Clara had a median home sales price 11 times higher than the area’s average annual wage of nearly $113,000 in 2023.

Median home sales prices are determined by finding the midpoint of all sales, where half sold for more and half for less.

The same was found at the coast in Santa Cruz and Watsonville, where 2023 housing prices were also 11 times higher than the average yearly wage of almost $68,000.

In Los Angeles County and Anaheim—in Orange County—the median home sales price was about 10 times more than the average wage of $98,200.

Further south in San Diego and Carlsbad, housing reached nearly nine times more than the average wage of $76,000 last year.

“Both homeowners and renters are struggling with high housing costs,” the authors of the report, called “The State of the Nation’s Housing 2024” wrote in its summary.