--- title: How Much You Need to Make to Own a Home in a Major U.S. City description: A new report analyzes the salary you'd need to earn to own a home in a major city. authors: - name: Kerry Close url: https://money.com/author/kerry-close/ at_money_since: 2016 articles: 182 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/kerryclose former_staff: true published: '2016-03-03T22:04:56.000Z' modified: '2016-03-03T22:04:56.000Z' section: Housing tags: - homeownership - pubdesk - real estate - salary word_count: 292 canonical: https://money.com/salary-home-ownership-major-city/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![San Francisco, California](https://img.money.com/2016/03/160303_rea_salarytolive.jpg?crop=0px%2C219px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85) Looking to buy a home in a big city? You're also going to need a big salary. A [new report](http://www.hsh.com/finance/mortgage/salary-home-buying-25-cities.html#_) from mortgage publisher HSH.com calculated the amount you'd need to earn to afford a home in 50 major U.S. cities. San Francisco predictably topped the list, with average home prices over $780,000. Pittsburgh, however, ranked as the most affordable metro area on the list for homeowners, who would only need to make about $31,134 to buy in Steel City. Before you decide you can afford to buy in your dream city, bear in mind that HSH.com only calculated the base cost of owning a home with a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage: It doesn't take into account any of the potentially unexpected costs like maintenance and repairs that will likely occur along the way. That being said, here's what you would need to make to buy a house in the 10 cities with the most expensive real estate prices: **10\. Miami** Median home price: $286,000 Average monthly payment: $1,471.12 Salary needed: $63,048.07 **9\. Portland** Median home price: $318,800 Average monthly payment: $1,538.07 Salary needed: $65,917.47 **8\. Denver** Median home price: $353,500 Average monthly payment: $1,596.85 Salary needed: $68,436.22 **7\. Seattle** Median home price: $385,300 Average monthly payment: $1,829.91 Salary needed: $78,424.93 **6\. Washington, D.C.** Median home price: $371,600 Average monthly payment: $1,834.60 Salary needed:$78,625.71 **5\. Boston** Median home price: $393,600 Average monthly payment: $1,940.20 Salary needed: $83,151.43 **4\. New York City** Median home price: $384,600 Average monthly payment: $2,024.64 Salary needed: $86,770.19 **3\. Los Angeles** Median home price: $481,900 Average monthly payment: $2,217.60 Salary needed: $95,040.20 **2\. San Diego** Median home price: $546,800 Average monthly payment: $2,407.18 Salary needed: $103,164.96 **1\. San Francisco** Median home price: $781,600 Average monthly payment: $3,453.24 Salary needed: $147,996.19 ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/salary-home-ownership-major-city/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Home Buying", "item": "https://money.com/home-buying/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "How Much You Need to Make to Own a Home in a Major U.S. City" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/salary-home-ownership-major-city/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/salary-home-ownership-major-city/", "name": "How Much You Need to Make to Own a Home in a Major U.S. City", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-03-03T22:04:56.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/salary-home-ownership-major-city/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/salary-home-ownership-major-city/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-03-03T22:04:56.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "How Much You Need to Make to Own a Home in a Major U.S. City", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/03/160303_rea_salarytolive.jpg?crop=0px%2C219px%2C2100px%2C1182px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "160303_REA_SalaryToLive" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kerry Close", "url": "https://money.com/author/kerry-close/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kerry-close/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/kerryclose" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-03-03T22:04:56.000Z", "description": "A new report analyzes the salary you'd need to earn to own a home in a major city.", "abstract": "A new report analyzes the salary you'd need to earn to own a home in a major city.", "@id": "https://money.com/salary-home-ownership-major-city/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-03-03T22:04:56.000Z", "wordCount": 292, "keywords": [ "homeownership", "pubdesk", "real estate", "salary" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Housing in the United States", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_the_United_States" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Real estate", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_estate" ] } ] } ] } ```