As something of a follow-up to September’s Big Picture Week, I thought I would post another update to the multi-city price metrics table. This time I figured I would expand the list to the top 30 so DC, Vegas, and Portland wouldn’t feel left out.
Data is current as of August 2010. Previous posts covered data from November 2009 and July 2009. For a historical comparison, hit this 2007 Fortune table (the “The P/R Ratios” tab has 15-year averages).
Rather than spending a bunch of time trying to come up with some sort of “fair” comparison that would inevitably be found lacking anyway, the table below is a straight up look at what the people in each city are actually paying to buy homes vs. what they are actually paying to rent homes.
The “price” column represents the median home sale price, the “rent” column is the median monthly rent, and “income” is the median household income. “P/R” is the median home sale price divided by the annual median rent (“rent” * 12). “P/I” is the median home sale price divided by the median household income, and “I/R” is the median household income divided by the annual median rent.
Click on any column header to sort by that column.
| City | State | Pop. | Density | Price | Rent | Income | P/R | P/I | I/R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | NY | 8,391,881 | 27,532 | $432,300 | $1,070 | $51,116 | 33.7 | 8.5 | 4.0 |
| Los Angeles | CA | 3,831,868 | 8,169 | $423,200 | $1,082 | $48,882 | 32.6 | 8.7 | 3.8 |
| Chicago | IL | 2,851,268 | 12,550 | $189,800 | $885 | $46,911 | 17.9 | 4.0 | 4.4 |
| Houston | TX | 2,257,926 | 3,561 | $87,492 | $794 | $44,315 | 9.2 | 2.0 | 4.6 |
| Phoenix | AZ | 1,601,587 | 3,087 | $137,400 | $898 | $50,140 | 12.8 | 2.7 | 4.7 |
| Philadelphia | PA | 1,547,297 | 11,453 | $192,900 | $816 | $36,976 | 19.7 | 5.2 | 3.8 |
| San Antonio | TX | 1,373,668 | 3,372 | $76,225 | $753 | $42,261 | 8.4 | 1.8 | 4.7 |
| San Diego | CA | 1,306,301 | 4,028 | $463,500 | $1,276 | $62,668 | 30.3 | 7.4 | 4.1 |
| Dallas | TX | 1,299,543 | 3,794 | $75,000 | $788 | $40,796 | 7.9 | 1.8 | 4.3 |
| San Jose | CA | 964,695 | 5,516 | $547,100 | $1,350 | $80,616 | 33.8 | 6.8 | 5.0 |
| Detroit | MI | 910,920 | 6,563 | $20,900 | $749 | $28,730 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 3.2 |
| San Francisco | CA | 815,358 | 17,459 | $752,300 | $1,294 | $73,798 | 48.5 | 10.2 | 4.8 |
| Jacksonville | FL | 813,518 | 1,061 | $143,900 | $873 | $50,476 | 13.7 | 2.9 | 4.8 |
| Indianapolis | IN | 807,584 | 2,212 | $101,600 | $717 | $43,652 | 11.8 | 2.3 | 5.1 |
| Austin | TX | 786,382 | 3,127 | $135,800 | $914 | $51,372 | 12.4 | 2.6 | 4.7 |
| Columbus | OH | 769,360 | 3,658 | $138,200 | $753 | $44,369 | 15.3 | 3.1 | 4.9 |
| Fort Worth | TX | 727,575 | 2,487 | $84,102 | $799 | $48,870 | 8.8 | 1.7 | 5.1 |
| Charlotte | NC | 709,441 | 2,928 | $205,500 | $821 | $52,530 | 20.9 | 3.9 | 5.3 |
| Memphis | TN | 676,640 | 2,238 | $85,700 | $775 | $37,207 | 9.2 | 2.3 | 4.0 |
| Boston | MA | 645,169 | 13,322 | $395,300 | $1,158 | $51,688 | 28.4 | 7.6 | 3.7 |
| Baltimore | MD | 637,418 | 7,889 | $182,400 | $843 | $40,313 | 18.0 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
| El Paso | TX | 620,447 | 2,491 | $113,540 | $617 | $37,600 | 15.3 | 3.0 | 5.1 |
| Seattle | WA | 617,334 | 7,361 | $455,400 | $964 | $61,786 | 39.4 | 7.4 | 5.3 |
| Denver | CO | 610,345 | 3,981 | $274,400 | $795 | $45,831 | 28.7 | 6.0 | 4.8 |
| Nashville | TN | 605,473 | 1,206 | $162,700 | $772 | $45,587 | 17.6 | 3.6 | 4.9 |
| Milwaukee | WI | 604,133 | 6,287 | $118,000 | $749 | $37,331 | 13.1 | 3.2 | 4.2 |
| Washington | DC | 599,657 | 9,766 | $683,800 | $1,036 | $57,936 | 55.0 | 11.8 | 4.7 |
| Las Vegas | NV | 567,641 | 4,327 | $144,500 | $1,032 | $53,097 | 11.7 | 2.7 | 4.3 |
| Louisville | KY | 566,503 | 1,471 | $130,500 | $489 | $34,116 | 22.2 | 3.8 | 5.8 |
| Portland | OR | 566,141 | 4,215 | $285,500 | $799 | $50,979 | 29.8 | 5.6 | 5.3 |
Here are the weighted averages:
- Median Home Price: $279,905
- Median Rent: $941
- Median Income: $48,748
- Price to Rent: 24.8
- Price to Income: 5.7
- Income to Rent: 4.3
Seattle has the seventh most-expensive home prices relative to incomes, but the second-cheapest rents compared to incomes, which pushes us to third highest on the price to rent list. If you’re interested in looking at some other takes on price to rent ratios, check out recent analysis from Zillow and Trulia, and be sure to read this surprisingly insightful take on the two reports from Forbes.
Will Seattle’s price to rent ratio ever be as low as Austin? Probably not. But I’m pretty confident in saying that I don’t think our home prices (compared to rents) will stay in the same league as New York City forever, either.