Only 41 Percent Of Doctors, 0.4 Percent Of Teachers Can Afford San Francisco Homes
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Housing prices in San Francisco have reached a point where less than one percent of homes for sale are affordable to teachers, according to a new analysis. Doctors who make significantly more will find less than half of available homes are within their reach.
Trulia examined nearly 100 metropolitan areas to determine where teachers, doctors, restaurant workers and first responders are struggling to afford to buy a home in communities where they work.
With a median home price at $1.25 million, the highest in the country, the real estate company found only 0.4 percent of San Francisco homes for sale are affordable to teachers who earn the median income of $72,340.
For first responders earning the median of $100,625, only 2.62 percent of homes are affordable. No homes were deemed affordable to restaurant workers earning the median income of about $28,000.
Trulia found doctors earning the median income of $208,000 could afford about 41 percent of available homes in San Francisco, the only market in the country where less than half of the available homes are affordable to those in the medical profession.
Teachers looking for an reasonably priced place to live will find only slight relief in the San Jose and East Bay markets, where the median home prices are $917,000 and $699,000, respectively. Less than 10 percent of homes were deemed affordable to teachers in both areas.
For first responders, Trulia found nine percent of homes are affordable in San Jose and 24 percent are affordable in the East Bay.
Doctors looking outside San Francisco will find signficantly more choices, with 56 percent of San Jose homes and 76 percent of East Bay homes deemed affordable.
Trulia defined an "affordable" home as one where the monthly payment was 31 percent of a person's income. For its calculations, Trulia assumed a borrower had a 20 percent down payment and took out a 30-year fixed rate mortgage at a 4.1 percent interest rate.
Tim Fang is a digital producer for CBS San Francisco and a native of the Bay Area. Follow him on Twitter @fangtj.
