How Long Do Americans Need to Save Up for a Home?

June 19, 2015

A basic rule of thumb is that the price of a home should be roughly 2.6 times one’s take-home pay. But after experts from CityLab and Martin Prosperity Institute looked at numbers, this isn’t the case for many Americans.

In Santa Cruz, it would take the average worker 13.1 years’ worth of wages to buy a home. In Honolulu, it’s 12.8 years of wages, San Jose 11.5 years, and San Francisco 11.0 years.