The southwest city jumped ahead of Denver and Seattle in December
By Patrick Kearns | Jan 20, 2021
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Phoenix, Arizona entered into the top 10 of the least affordable metropolitan areas in the United States, according to a new analysis on Thursday of median home sold price and median household income conducted by real estate technology company OJO Labs.
The median home sold price in Phoenix climbed 28.1% in December to $410,000, bringing the city’s unaffordability score — a ratio of home sold price to median household income — to 5.47, bumping Denver, Colorado out of the top 10 and additionally surpassing Seattle, Washington and Colorado Springs, Colorado, in terms of unaffordability.
The three most unaffordable markets in the U.S., all in California, remained unchanged with San Francisco as the leader, and Los Angeles and San Diego vying for second place. In December, it was Los Angeles that took the silver medal with a 14.7% year-over-year price increase, a median home sold price of $710,000, and an unaffordability score of 8.29.
The metro area encompassing Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida also saw a new surge in unaffordability, surpassing the Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Florida metro area. Mobile saw its median home sold price climb 23% year over year to $307,500 in December.
The biggest overall increase in home prices came in Tampa, Florida, which saw its median home sold price rise 45% year over year to $322,000.
Green Bay-Appleton, Wisconsin continued to be the most affordable of the top 50 metro areas in the nation in terms of homes sold. The median home price in Green Bay-Appleton in November was $145,000, a decrease of 6.4% from the year prior and unchanged from last month. Cleveland-Akron, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Detroit, Michigan rounded out the top five in terms of most affordable metro areas on the list.
The only other metro area to actually see prices fall year over year was Fort Myers, Florida which saw the median home sold price fall 13.8%, making it the 8th most affordable metro area on the list.
Nationally, unaffordability stayed essentially unchanged from November to December. The median home price increased 15% year over year, but the unaffordability score was the same as last month.