AFFORDABILITY

Median home price tops $400k in nation’s biggest metros for first time

Home prices rose more than 17% in the top 50 metros, year over year

By Patrick Kearns | Jun 9, 2022

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Median monthly home sold price in the nation’s top metros crossed $400,000 for the first time in May, according to data from real estate technology company OJO Labs. The new milestone was reached due to a 17% increase in median home price year over year, the highest level of yearly home price appreciation reported since OJO Labs began publishing monthly affordability reports in July 2021. 

Washington, D.C., joined the $500,000 and up club for the first time, meaning 12 U.S. metros now reported a median home sold price of more than $500,000. Miami, Florida; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Phoenix, Arizona, are all at or above $450,000, and sitting just outside that range. 

A total of 14 metros reported an unaffordability score — a ratio of home sold price to local median household income — at or above 6, compared to 16 metro areas in March. Nationwide, the unaffordability score stayed static at 5.1 compared to last month, but mortgage rates above 5% are continuing to make homeownership less affordable than the month prior. It’s also just the second time the OJO unaffordability score has topped 5 since OJO Labs began tracking the data, with the first being last month.   

The top 10 least affordable metro areas remained unchanged from last month, with San Francisco, California, leading the way with an unaffordability score of 10.8 — down slightly from 11.1 last month. San Diego, California and Los Angeles, California, were the only other metro areas to report an unaffordability score above 8 — both driven by year-over-year price increases of 15%. The rest of the top five were: Miami, Florida and Denver, Colorado.

Green Bay-Appleton, Wisconsin, continued to be the most affordable of the top 50 metro areas in the nation in terms of homes sold. In April, the median home sold price in Green Bay-Appleton was $177,000, an increase of 22% from the year prior — leading to an unaffordability score of 2.5, up slightly from last month.  

Buffalo, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, rounded out the top five most affordable metro areas in the U.S. 

Even with the increase in overall home price appreciation, there are still many metro areas sitting lower than the national average. Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Indianapolis, Indian; and Washington, D.C., also saw home prices rise at a rate of 6% or lower on an annual basis. 

Unaffordability score is a ratio that’s derived from monthly median housing prices and median household income. The higher the score, the more unaffordable a metro area is for a household making the median income. Median home price data is drawn from local multiple listing service sold data, and median household income is derived from 2016-19 census data.

Patrick Kearns is the Director of Storytelling at OJO Labs. Prior to joining OJO Labs, Patrick worked as a journalist for more than a decade, most recently covering housing and real estate at Inman News. He’s also written for The Guardian, The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, Vice, and others.

OJO is a real estate platform that provides support and guidance to match each moment of the home journey, so everyone feels ready, equipped, and inspired to take the next step. Learn more.

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