Zillow: DC’s Most and Least Affordable Zip Codes

• April 7, 2014

by Lark Turner

A map of the DC area colored to indicate affordability on a $2,000 per month budget.

A new tool debuted by a Zillow economist last week allows users to explore housing affordability at a given price range using data from the fourth quarter of 2013. UrbanTurf used the tool to check out the affordability of homes in the DC area assuming a $500,000 purchase price with an anticipated monthly payment of about $2,000. The tool calculates DC-area affordability based on a monthly payment corresponding to 18 percent of a buyer’s monthly income.

The map ranks affordability from dark red to dark green, with dark red indicating the least affordable places to live. The scale adjusts depending on the selected monthly payment, and puts that monthly payment — in this case, $2,000 — in the middle of the colored scale.

Here’s what we found, with zip codes ranked from least to most affordable. The percentage, at right, indicates the number of homes available in that neighborhood deemed affordable given the $2,000 monthly payment:

Note: Neighborhoods listed for zip codes are not comprehensive.

Unsurprisingly, the DC zip code of 20015 clocked in as the least affordable zip code for that mortgage payment range. Homes in DC’s eastern neighborhoods were most affordable, especially in 20032 and 20019. A look at the map reveals a stark east-west affordability divide that won’t surprise longtime residents.

For its “affordability index” of metro areas across the country, Zillow calculated a mortgage payment based on a 20 percent down payment on the median price of a home with a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/and_dcs_least_affordable_zip_codes/8324