Seattle Bubble Forum Archive

I've seen the "median home price" for varying subsets of Seattle recently listed at between 380 and 430-ish. With the traditional "30-year, 20% down, payments at 29% of gross income" loan, a 400K house requires an 82k salary. But browsing online listings, what I consider a satisfying family home within a 30 minute downtown rush-hour commute doesn't appear until near the 500's (and there are *lots* listed in this range, very few in the 400's). These require a salary of 100-120k!

What's the median income for a home (not condo or townhome) owner in Seattle? Are there really that many 100K+ incomes floating around to justify the number of listings in that range? Are two white-collar incomes a requirement for home ownership? Or is everyone foregoing retirement savings, getting ridiculous 40-year ARMs, letting daycare raise their kids etc.?

I think your income range is too low. You should be earning closer to $150K to buy a $500K house using conventional financing in 2007.

Most dual income white collar couples generally earn between $100K-180K, and yes there are quite a few of them here. Those at the lower end of that range aren't in a position to buy a home unless they live very frugally and/or have a large down payment.

It's unclear that the lack of income has shifted home buying to only higher income households though. I think it was Rhonda over at Rain City that mentioned her mortgage clients are fairly representative of the median income for the area. This seems to be supported buy the rapid growth of IO and Option ARM use in the past 2 years.