The Most Expensive US Cities To Buy Homes In 2010
Thinking of buying a home in the US? Take note of the most expensive cities:
1. New York City
Home prices can be amazingly high in the Big Apple, but median income is only $65,000. This makes NYC the country's least affordable major metro area. Median home prices have dropped below $500,000 with more properties having mortgage rates are near historic lows. The housing market is greatly affected by what's going on at Wall Street. When the financial markets go down, so does the housing market.
2. San Francisco
Incomes in the Bay Area have a median of about $98,400 while home prices meet halfway at about $585,000. The housing market has seen a bit of improvement in the last quarter of 2009 in San Francisco, so affordability of new homes is a bit lower these days. Still, home prices are much lower than they were in 2006, when a median-priced house sold for $769,000. There is , however, increasing unemployment which right now stands at 11%.
3. Honolulu
It has been expensive to live the Aloha State's largest city for quite some time now. There is little developable land and most building materials have to be imported from far away. These keep home prices high. Median home prices stand at around $403,000, while median income is about $81,700. Tourism is a big industry here and it has suffered a blow with the US economic recession. Occupancy rates in hotels have dropped for a year and a half but they have been on the again since September 2009. Unemployment in this city is at 5.6% which is well below the national average.
4. Santa Ana, California
Unemployment in Santa Ana is currently at 11.7% which is above the national average. Median prices for homes is at $410,000, while median incomes are only at $87,300. There have been a significant number of foreclosures in this city which will most likely push home prices down again in the future.
5: Los Angeles
There's not much land to build on in this city of 4 million (13 million for the entire metropolis) and so home prices are still high. The median home price in the City of Angels is at $306,000 while the median income is only $62,900. Many homeowners are facing foreclosure problems with unemployment at 11.7%. This has pushed some housing prices down in the last few months.