5 Cities Where Renters Can Afford to Buy a Home

With elevated home prices and mortgage rates, more than 52 million U.S. households are opting to rent their homes. However, some markets have more affordable housing options than others, and despite choosing to rent in order to avoid high rates, some renters could afford to buy a home in their local markets. 

Analyzing data from housing market platform Zillow, the ResiClub blog broke down the five U.S. housing markets with the highest share of renters that could still afford to buy a home in their city. Topping the list was Pittsburgh, with 25.6% of renters being able to afford a home, followed by Detroit and St. Louis, with 23.1% and 22.6% of renters, respectively. The opposite is true in markets such as San Diego and San Jose, Calif., where less than 3% of renters could afford to purchase a home.

“While roughly 7.9 million [non-homeowner] families are income mortgage-ready across the country, there is substantial variation across metropolitan areas. The share of mortgage-ready families varies from 25.6% in Pittsburgh to just 2.6% in San Diego,” wrote Zillow economists.

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