This is how much you need to make to afford a home in the Baltimore area.
A buyer needs an annual salary of about $56,000 to afford a typical home in the Baltimore area, according to the latest analysis by a company that tracks mortgage and loan information.
That places Baltimore in roughly the middle of the pack in terms of affordability of the 27 metro areas studied by HSH.com. The firm assumes a buyer can spend about 28 percent of gross monthly income on payments and also takes into account local mortgage interest rates, property taxes and insurance costs for the ranking.
The calculation of affordability assumes a buyer will make a 20 percent down payment and receive a 30-year mortgage on a home priced at the median for the metro area. In Baltimore, that’s a home that costs $264,300, with a monthly payment of about $1,300.
Baltimore’s costs are a bit higher than the national average. The median cost of a home nationally is $240,000, requiring an annual salary of about $52,000.
In San Francisco, the most expensive market, a buyer would need a salary of more than $152,000 to afford a home priced at the median, $835,400. In Pittsburgh, the least expensive, a buyer could afford a typical home on about $32,000 a year.
Baltimore offers a discount compared to nearby Washington, D.C., where a buyer would need a salary of about $78,460 to afford a home priced at the median, $394,000.