Researchers from a California university and a Canadian think tank have placed Pittsburgh number 1 in their latest analysis of the most affordable housing markets across several English-speaking nations. Digging deeper, though, finds even the Steel City suffers from trends that have put affordable housing increasingly out of reach.The study from Chapman University and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy looked at 94 cities in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Each city’s housing market was measured by comparing its median house price against the median household income in the market. Each city was then ranked on a scale from “affordable” to “impossibly unaffordable.”Pittsburgh came in first, with Rochester, N.Y.; St. Louis; Cleveland; and Edmonton, Alberta, rounding out the top five. Pittsburgh was deemed 75% more affordable than the most unaffordable market in America, San Jose. The Philadelphia area was ranked 20th, while New York City’s market came in 77th. However, Pittsburgh still fell just outside the researchers’ metric for deeming a market affordable. That means none of the cities this study looked at were actually affordable for the incomes available in each. The U.S. Census Bureau lists the 2022 median household income in Pittsburgh proper as $60,187, while the per capita income was $41,146. Realtor.com gave Pittsburgh’s median listing home price in May 2024 as $274,900, a nearly 5% increase year-on-year. The median price for houses sold was $305,000.The people behind the Demographia International Housing Affordability study said affordability worldwide has not returned to its pre-pandemic state. The rise in remote work has “fueled a demand increase as many households were induced to move from more central areas to suburban, exurban and even more remote areas.”Researchers singled out rising land costs as the primary motivator for the increased disparity between house prices and income, with an “excess of demand over supply.”At least we can breathe a bit easier than folks in Hong Kong. The market there was ranked last, coming in at over five times more unaffordable than Pittsburgh’s.
Researchers from a California university and a Canadian think tank have placed Pittsburgh number 1 in their latest analysis of the most affordable housing markets across several English-speaking nations. Digging deeper, though, finds even the Steel City suffers from trends that have put affordable housing increasingly out of reach.
The study from Chapman University and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy looked at 94 cities in countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Each city’s housing market was measured by comparing its median house price against the median household income in the market. Each city was then ranked on a scale from “affordable” to “impossibly unaffordable.”
Pittsburgh came in first, with Rochester, N.Y.; St. Louis; Cleveland; and Edmonton, Alberta, rounding out the top five. Pittsburgh was deemed 75% more affordable than the most unaffordable market in America, San Jose. The Philadelphia area was ranked 20th, while New York City’s market came in 77th.
However, Pittsburgh still fell just outside the researchers’ metric for deeming a market affordable. That means none of the cities this study looked at were actually affordable for the incomes available in each.
The U.S. Census Bureau lists the 2022 median household income in Pittsburgh proper as $60,187, while the per capita income was $41,146. Realtor.com gave Pittsburgh’s median listing home price in May 2024 as $274,900, a nearly 5% increase year-on-year. The median price for houses sold was $305,000.
The people behind the Demographia International Housing Affordability study said affordability worldwide has not returned to its pre-pandemic state. The rise in remote work has “fueled a demand increase as many households were induced to move from more central areas to suburban, exurban and even more remote areas.”
Researchers singled out rising land costs as the primary motivator for the increased disparity between house prices and income, with an “excess of demand over supply.”
At least we can breathe a bit easier than folks in Hong Kong. The market there was ranked last, coming in at over five times more unaffordable than Pittsburgh’s.
