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Paycheck to Paycheck (2015)

NHC’s annual release of Paycheck to Paycheck provides insights into the ability of working households to afford typical housing in metropolitan areas across the country. The published report highlights the housing affordability challenges of workers in several occupations across 203 metropolitan areas. See our methodology for more information on how we come up with our numbers (or use the same methodology to do your own analysis).

The full Paycheck to Paycheck data tool includes:

  • Graphs that compare wages and housing costs in 203 metro areas and the nation
  • Median incomes for 83 occupations
  • Median home prices and the income needed to afford them
  • Fair market rents and the income needed to afford them

Metropolitan Areas

Select one of 210 metropolitan areas

- OR -

Occupations

Select one of 81 occupations

Report and Rankings

A Snapshot of Metropolitan Housing Affordability for Healthcare Workers

Most to Least Expensive Rental Markets, 2017

Most to Least Expensive Homeownership Markets, 2017

Change in the Income Needed to Rent a Home, 2016-2017

Change in the Income Needed to Purchase a Home, 2016-2017

Previous releases of Paycheck to Paycheck:

* In a few select cases, 2003 and 2005 wage data may not be comparable due to a change in methodology.

Paycheck to Paycheck can be viewed using a recent internet browser.
Flash support is required for first quarter 2011 findings and earlier. Internet Explorer is recommended for printing chart pages.

Methodology

Data Sources

Paycheck to Paycheck is based on three sets of data: median home sale prices, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Fair Market Rent (FMR) calculations, and salary data from Salary.com. For the median home sale prices, we primarily rely on data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). When NAHB data are missing for a particular metropolitan area, we use data from the National Association of Realtors.

202 of the Paycheck to Paycheck metro areas use Fair Market Rents as published by HUD. The Dallas area is required to use Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) as a result of a legal settlement. The Dallas metro-wide FMR was calculated by averaging out all of the SAFMRs.

The data from Salary.com is proprietary and not publicly available. The other data are available at the following links:

NAHB (first link to NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index)

National Association of Realtors

HUD FMR look-up tool

Calculations

For homeownership, we calculate the income required to qualify for a mortgage on the median-priced home. Our calculations are based on a 90-percent loan-to-value ratio (that is, a 10-percent down payment plus the use of private mortgage insurance) and monthly payments that include loan principal and interest as well as estimated taxes and insurance. The monthly mortgage payments are annualized and assumed to comprise no more than 28 percent of gross annual income in accordance with conventional underwriting guidelines.

For rental housing, we calculate the annual income that must be earned so that gross rent does not exceed 30 percent of gross income, a commonly accepted standard of affordability.

NHC provides a detailed guide on replicating our methodology here.

Geography

This analysis is done for 83 occupations in 203 metropolitan areas. The metropolitan areas are matched as well as possible between the sales data metro areas, HUD’s FMR area definitions, and the existing definitions of Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) and metropolitan divisions by the Office of Management and Budget.

Frequently Asked Questions

For the metro area I checked, homeownership seems to be affordable for most occupations. What does this mean?

In markets where low- and moderate-income workers can afford the mortgage for a median-priced home, workers may still face barriers to homeownership.  Amassing a down payment (we assume 10 percent down), getting access to credit, and affording the bills for utilities, maintenance, and repairs can be substantial additional burdens, especially for working families.

Why do you calculate affordability based on just one income?

Job loss, household composition changes, and other factors mean that many households find themselves relying on just one income to get by.  In recent years, single-wage-earner households account for just under 40 percent of all U.S. households.  The median number of workers per household is typically around 1.5. For many lower-wage jobs, even two earners would not have enough income to afford housing in moderate or high-cost markets.

Notes

Paycheck to Paycheck 2017 uses total cash compensation data for workers’ salaries instead of base pay data used in versions prior to 2013. Total cash compensation includes base pay, tips, and short-term performance bonuses but not overtime or holiday pay, or hiring and retention bonuses. As a result, Paycheck to Paycheck 2017 is only comparable to Paycheck to Paycheck 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016

The total number of metropolitan areas for which data are available is not always 203, as complete data on home sales were not available for all years.

Acknowledgements

The National Housing Conference gratefully acknowledges the support of the Chicago Dwellings Association in funding Paycheck to Paycheck: Wages and the Cost of Housing in America and Paycheck to Paycheck 2017: A Snapshot of Housing Affordability for Healthcare Workers. Any opinions or conclusions expressed, however, are those of the authors alone.