$100K-a-year income still isn’t enough to buy a median-priced home in Whatcom County
Home affordability continued to worsen across parts of the U.S., including Whatcom County.
A new report from ATTOM Data Solutions shows the U.S. affordability rate for a median-priced home hit a 10-year low in the fourth quarter of 2018.
The report found that more than 15 percent of local markets studied required more than $100,000 in annual income to afford a median-priced home. The report used a 3 percent down payment and a 28 percent debt-to-income ratio as factors to determine the income level needed.
Whatcom County is one of the markets where more than $100,000 annual income is needed. According to the report, Whatcom County residents needed an annual income of $102,835. That’s up from $97,009 in the third quarter.
In a separate report, Zillow announced that the median value for a Whatcom County home in November was $389,000, up 10.6 percent from a year ago. In Bellingham, the median home value was $418,700 last month.
In Skagit County, $96,827 in annual income is needed to buy a median-priced home, while $162,489 is needed in King County.
The report did offer a few silver linings for potential home buyers. Affordability did improve in half of the local markets studied, Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM, said in a news release accompanying the data.
Blomquist also noted that wage increases outpaced home appreciation in 20 percent of local markets. However, in Washington state, only King County showed wages outpacing home appreciation.
This story was originally published December 26, 2018 at 12:46 PM.
