Survey: Portlanders need to make about $70,000 a year to buy a home

The most expensive city? San Francisco, where homebuyers need to make $160,589 to cover the $3,747 monthly payment for a $837,500 median-priced home.

How much do you need to make each year to buy a house in Portland? About $70,000 — an increase of nearly 7.5 percent from a year ago.

That's according to a quarterly survey of housing prices and salary requirements for mortgages in 27 metropolitan areas by HSH.com, the Riverdale, New Jersey, mortgage and consumer loan information company.

HSH.com's survey used a 3.9 percent fixed rate 30-year mortgage as a standard to find out how much salary was needed in major cities to buy a median-priced home. Nationally, the median home price was about $235,000 and required nearly $52,000 a year to make the $1,212 monthly payment.

Portland homebuyers needed $70,895 in annual salary to buy a home with the median price of $354,700 and monthly payments at about $1,654.

The median annual income for Portland households in 2015 was $63,850, higher than the statewide median income of $54,148.

Portland ranked 19th on the list of top 27 metropolitan areas for salary-to-home cost ratio. The study included Vancouver, Washington, and Beaverton in the Portland area.

The most expensive city? San Francisco, where homebuyers need to make $160,589 to cover the $3,747 monthly payment for a $837,500 median-priced home. Seattle wasn't far behind, requiring an annual salary of $83,969 to buy a $423,300 median-priced home.

The cheapest city? Pittsburgh, where an annual salary of $32,373 buys a $130,000 median-priced home (with monthly payments of about $755).





