How Much It Takes to Afford Home Payments in the 15 Largest U.S. Cities

In the 15 largest cities in the U.S., homeowner's annual salary would need to be between $20,294 in Indianapolis, and $128,598 in San Francisco to afford home payments.

A new study calculating what a homeowner would need to afford a median home, including mortgage, real estate taxes, and homeowners insurance found that property taxes can be an important factor that many people overlook. SmartAsset's analysis showed that a median value home in San Jose, $609,500, would require an annual salary of slightly less than $100,000. For a home at the same price in Austin, the salary recommendation is $128,000, as real estate taxes in that city cost nearly $600 more per month.

After taking everything into account, we recommend an income of $128,000 to afford the median home payments in San Francisco. Median-priced homes in many cities on our list (including San Antonio and Philadelphia) are affordable to people with incomes of less than $30,000, assuming they have no outside debt and have already enough saved for a 20 percent down payment.

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