DC Area's Middle Class Can Afford Homes $441,000 and Under

• May 14th 2014

by Lark Turner

A new study from Trulia shows that about 62 percent of homes for sale in the DC area are in reach of the middle class.

The study, which uses data from the rather large DC metro area, puts the region’s median middle class income at $88,865 and from there calculates that an affordable home would be priced at $441,000. Of the homes on the market in the area, about 62 percent fall at or below that price point, Trulia reported in the study released Tuesday. If you look at just DC proper, that percentage falls to 44 percent; if you are looking in Prince George’s County, it jumps to 85 percent.

Trulia relied on an affordability calculation that puts the monthly cost of homeownership at 31 percent or less of a household’s monthly income. The total monthly payment for the report includes the mortgage payment assuming a 20 percent down payment. The percentage of available homes to the middle class would be lower if a down payment of lower than 20 percent was used in the calculation.

Here are some other takeaways from the nationwide study, which calculated a different measure of “middle class” in each area:

• The majority of homes for sale in most U.S markets are within reach of the middle class.
• Over 80 percent of the homes for sale in Detroit and Cleveland are within reach of the middle class. In San Francisco, just 14 percent of homes for sale are considered affordable to the middle class.
• Of the top 10 least affordable markets in the country, seven are in California.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/trulia_dc_areas_middle_class_can_afford_homes_441k_and_under/8485.