San Diego is the second least affordable housing market among the nation’s 25 largest cities, according to Interest.com, with only San Francisco less affordable.
San Diego’s median income is about 38 percent below what it would take to buy a median priced home. That is not a surprise to San Diego State University real estate instructor Mark Goldman.
“We have very limited [home] supply,” Goldman said. “We have very, very strong demand, but the price that people are able to pay is limited by affordability. You know, we can only go so high and we start squeezing people out of the market.”
The median price of a home in San Diego County was $440,000 in October, according to La Jolla-based CoreLogic DataQuick, with the county’s median household income at about $63,00. The year-to-year price gain in San Diego was a little more than 6 percent. Year-to-year price gains had been in double digits for much of the past two years.
“People don’t have unlimited resources,” Goldman said. “But the percentage of gross income utilized for housing, whether it’s rent or to own a home, typically is much higher in San Diego.” Goldman predicted that the size of year-to-year price increases will continue to drop, ending up somewhere in the 3 percent to 4 percent range.