Wow: Need $181,349 Yearly Salary to Buy SF Area Home

If you want to buy a home in the beautiful, culturally exuberant San Francisco metro area, then make sure your individual or combined annual salary is at least $181,349 and change. That’s the prognosis from mortgage tracker HSH in a new report just released in the last week of August.

But, of course, the mortgage payment is not the only house-owning expense. How about the property taxes, and interest on the mortgage, and on. Be prepared to carry a month to month expense for owning a somewhat affordable home at the $4,231 mark.

The HSH report covered what is called the San Francisco Metro Area, which includes the counties of San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and San Mateo counties.

If the buyer wants to put less down (usually 20 percent) on the home purchase, then the annual salary requirement zooms up to $215,598.

For a bit of birds-eye perspective, the national median home cost is $255,600 which takes a yearly salary of $56,160 to afford.