High-Dollar Homebuyers

A new study looking at homebuyers earning at least $999,000 per year, and as a share of all buyers in a given market, finds where the highest earners are shopping for homes.

California and Florida were the dominant states in the top 10, but San Francisco and San Rafael metros in California topped SmartAsset's list, with the highest earners taking about a two percent share of all buyers in the metros. The average income for these buyers across the 82 cities studied was $2.57 million, but Riverside, Calif. buyers averaged more than $10 million, and the highest average income in the study was in the Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas metro, topping $36 million.

Different places attract particular residents due to a variety of factors such as job opportunities, climate or lifestyle. Though an ultimate constraint is the cost of a home, some markets seem to draw more high-earning homebuyers than others. For instance, Zillow estimates that the median home value in San Francisco is approximately $1.37 million (as of February 2019). That would require not only enough savings to afford a down payment, but also a large enough income to cover the high monthly mortgage payments.

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