Metro affordability — price-to-income ratio

Median home value รท median household income. The single most-decision-relevant single number for "where is buying a home actually still feasible." Healthy: ~3x. Stretched: 5x. Crisis-level: 8x+. Most major metros sit in the 4-6x range; California metros and NYC have been in the crisis range for years.

Snapshot data. Median home values from Zillow ZHVI (most recent) and median household income from Census ACS 5-year. Both refresh annually. Mortgage rate uses live current national 30Y for the monthly-payment math.

Top 25 metros — ranked by price-to-income

Color: green = healthy (<4x), amber = stretched (4-6x), red = crisis (>6x).

Detail table — price, income, ratio, monthly P&I

Monthly P&I assumes 80% LTV at the current 30Y national mortgage rate.