Salary Needed to Buy a Home Across 60+ Major Cities

HouseFinancy applies authentic, hyper-localized mortgage underwriting math tailored to each city's regional market. For US cities, we enforce standard 28% front-end debt-to-income (DTI) rules and local effective property tax rates. For UK cities, we test the Bank of England's statutory 4.5x loan-to-income multiple cap alongside Council Tax. For Eurozone metros, we apply the 35% HCSF debt effort ceiling and local notary transfer fees. For Australia, we model APRA's +3.0% serviceability stress buffer on top of standard 30% gross income benchmarks.

Comparing qualifying homebuyer salary directly against local median household income creates the 'Local Affordability Gap.' When a city requires a $172,000 salary to buy a median home but local median income is only $91,500, buyers face an acute +88% affordability deficit. This metric reveals whether a market is genuinely affordable for local workers or requires dual incomes, family wealth transfers, or starter apartments to enter.

Upfront cash requirements vary dramatically worldwide. In the US, buyers typically need 10%–20% down plus ~3% in title and lender closing costs. In the UK, buyers pay a 10%–15% deposit plus Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) and legal fees. In France, Germany, and Spain, government notary and transfer taxes average 7%–10% and must be paid in liquid cash on completion day. In Australia, buyers must cover State Stamp Duty (NSW, VIC, QLD) plus conveyancing on top of their deposit.

Markets like San Francisco, New York, Sydney, London, and Paris feature high price-to-income ratios (8x–13x) and require qualifying salaries 60% to 120% above local median earnings. In contrast, cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Glasgow, and Brussels offer more balanced ratios (3.5x–5x), where a household earning local median wages can realistically qualify for entry-level homeownership.