The Least Affordable Metros Are Seeing Declining Job Growth

Slowing job growth in Silicon Valley may signal a national slowdown. The two most expensive housing markets, San Jose and San Francisco, have the highest household median incomes, yet housing affordability remains a pressing issue.

Extrapolating this pattern to the remainder of the 10 least affordable metros, Bloomberg's research shows that the least affordable housing markets, (Los Angeles; San Diego; Miami; Riverside, California; New York; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; and Denver), are experiencing slower job growth.

[The chart] shows job growth slowing everywhere, and plummeting in metropolitan areas that saw some of the strongest growth over the course of the current expansion. This could mean that high real estate prices (and the zoning rules and other regulations that help keep them high) are strangling the expansion, or that the expansion is slowing down for other reasons and hitting the high-priced cities first. Or something else!

Read more