Asian homebuyers have more home buying power than any other demographic group today. They can afford +$155,000 more house than other typical buyers. With a median household income of $82,627/year, Asian homebuyers could afford a home with a sale price of $541,505 or 85.2% of all listings.
Caucasian or white buyers can afford to buy a home that is almost 66% more expensive than an African American or black homebuyer. With a median household income of $64,647/year, white buyers could afford a home with a sale price of $423,671 or 77.6% of all homes listed for sale.
The median yearly household income of Hispanics is $47,990. Hispanic homebuyers could afford a home with a sale price of $314,505.
With a median yearly income of $39,466, black homebuyers could afford a home with a sale price of $258,644 without paying more than 30% of net income on housing payments. This home sale price affords blacks buying homes in 8 or 9 of the 50 largest counties nationwide. In six of those largest counties (San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Portland and San Diego) blacks could afford 20% of the homes listed for sale.
Clearly, African Americans and Hispanics are priced out of housing markets proximate to tech centers and lucrative tech jobs. Whites and Asians who have the majority of those lucrative tech jobs that generate a median household income of $118,467 could afford only 53.3% of the sale homes in the 5-county San Francisco metro area.
Housing markets where Hispanic and black homebuyers could afford the largest share of homes listed for sale are Memphis (75.3%), Hartford (73.4%) and St. Louis (73.1%). White and Asian homebuyers could afford 90% of the homes listed for sale in these three markets.
We’ve written many times here that homeownership is key to building wealth and upward mobility, particularly for children born into low-income families. With the national median annual household income for all Americans being $58,978, those demographic groups with higher and lower household incomes have almost designated paths to homeownership. These patterns become self-perpetuating and have long lasting implications.
For more information and graphic descriptions about diverse home buying power among diverse demographic groups, please click
https://www.zillow.com/research/affordable-home-listings-by-race-19419/
