The 10 Most Affordable Small and Large Metros
Rising home prices and mortgage rates have eroded affordability nationwide, but these metros are the nation's most affordable.
Published:
June 1, 2022
June 1, 2022
Est. Read Time:
Nationwide, housing affordability is still at one of its lowest points of all-time due to 20% year-over-year price growth and this year’s sudden rise in mortgage rates.
But the housing market isn’t a monolith and affordability varies by location.
For example, 97.3% of homes were affordable at the local median income in Wheeling, W.Va., while just 8.3% were affordable in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Cali., according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. This index measures the share of homes that are affordable at the local median income.
With such a difference in affordability, it’s hard to imagine these two metros are on the same planet, let alone in the same country.
National headlines about eroding affordability may be intimidating, but 56.9% of homes sold in the first quarter of 2021 were affordable at the national household median income of $90,000. And there are still plenty of metro areas – large and small – that are affordable to entry-level homebuyers.
Here are the most and least affordable metro areas for the first quarter of 2022.
What's in this Article?
Most affordable large metros
Least affordable large metros
Most affordable small metros
Least affordable small metros
Large metros (population over 500,000)
Most affordable large metros
| Rank | Metro | % of homes affordable at median income | Q1 2022 Median sales price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lansing-East Lansing, MI | 92.3 | $136,000 |
| 2 | Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN | 89.9 | $204,000 |
| 3 | Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA | 89.2 | $145,000 |
| 4 | Rochester, NY | 87.4 | $162,000 |
| 5 | Dayton-Kettering, OH | 86.8 | $160,000 |
| 6 | Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT | 86.7 | $250,000 |
| 7 | Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI | 86.3 | $226,000 |
| 8 | Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA | 86.2 | $180,000 |
| 9 | Toledo, OH | 86.0 | $137,000 |
| 9 | Pittsburgh, PA | 86.0 | $183,000 |
Least affordable large metros
| Rank | Metro | % of homes affordable at median income | Q1 2022 Median sales price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA | 8.3 | $825,000 |
| 2 | Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine, CA | 11.7 | $995,000 |
| 3 | San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA | 14.4 | $1,485,000 |
| 4 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | 14.6 | $783,000 |
| 5 | Stockton, CA | 21.3 | $550,000 |
| 6 | Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA | 21.7 | $760,000 |
| 7 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 21.9 | $1,372,000 |
| 8 | New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ | 22.3 | $695,000 |
| 9 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 23.7 | $527,000 |
| 10 | Modesto, CA | 25.6 | $449,000 |
Large metro takeaways
The difference between the most and least affordable large metros is staggering. Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown is the most expensive of the 10 most affordable metros, and its median home price is nearly half of the cheapest market in the 10 least affordable metros.
In fact, the average median home price of the most affordable large metros ($178,300) is nearly one-fifth of the average for the least affordable large metros ($844,100).
And here’s the mind-blowing part: The median income of the most and least affordable large metros is nearly identical.
- Lansing-East Lansing median income: $89,500
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale median income: $90,100
Small metros (Population under 500,000)
Most affordable small metros
| Rank | Metro | % of homes affordable at median income | Q1 2022 Median sales price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wheeling, WV-OH | 97.3 | $137,000 |
| 2 | Cumberland, MD-WV | 97.1 | $107,000 |
| 3 | Elmira, NY | 96.6 | $127,000 |
| 4 | Utica-Rome, NY | 93.8 | $111,000 |
| 5 | Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL | 93.5 | $118,000 |
| 6 | Bay City, MI | 91.6 | $118,000 |
| 7 | Binghamton, NY | 91.4 | $127,000 |
| 8 | Kokomo, IN | 91.3 | $154,000 |
| 9 | Monroe, MI | 91.1 | $195,000 |
| 10 | Springfield, OH | 90.8 | $129,000 |
Least affordable small metros
| Rank | Metro | % of homes affordable at median income | Q1 2022 Median sales price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salinas, CA | 9.2 | $790,000 |
| 2 | Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA | 17.4 | $771,000 |
| 3 | San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA | 18.3 | $770,000 |
| 4 | Napa, CA | 19.2 | $835,000 |
| 5 | Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA | 19.4 | $1,000,000 |
| 6 | Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, HI | 21.6 | $835,000 |
| 7 | Merced, CA | 24.4 | $405,000 |
| 8 | Bend, OR | 25.3 | $601,000 |
| 9 | Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | 26.5 | $720,000 |
| 10 | Yuba City, CA | 29.8 | $425,000 |
Small metro takeaways
The most and least affordable small metros are similar to the large metros in several ways.
First, California dominates the least affordable lists for both small and large metros. Only New York City, Bend, and Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina were able to break up the California sweep.
The average median home price for the least affordable small metros ($715,200) is nearly 5.5 times greater than that of the most affordable metros ($132,300).
But again, the difference in median income for the most and least affordable small metros isn’t as great as you might expect:
- Wheeler median income: $75,400
- Salinas median income: $90,100
Housing affordability is relative
So what do the most and least affordable metros tell us? That housing affordability is relative to location. A household income of $90,000 unlocks more than 90% of homes in one part of the country and less than 9% in another.
Mortgage calculator: See how much home you can afford.
It’s also important to note that market conditions, especially mortgage rates, have changed substantially since the end of the first quarter. Affordability rankings may look very different when second quarter data is released.