Credit: Screenshot, HSH.com


The cost of living in the U.S. varies substantially, with some East Coasters needing a base salary of $79,000 annually to purchase a median-priced home, and some West Coasters needing almost double that. 

But have you ever wondered how much you, dear Clevelander, need to make each year to buy your own place?

Not all that much, comparably.  

HSH.com, an online mortgage and consumer loan information website, recently crunched the numbers and found that folks setting down in Cleveland need only to make $29,788.67 each year to afford average monthly mortgage payments. 

To come up with that number, HSHers looked at “the National Association of Realtors’ fourth-quarter data for median home prices and HSH.com’s fourth-quarter average interest rate for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages to determine how much money homebuyers would need to earn in order to afford only the principal and interest payment on a median-priced home in their market.”

(Note, they didn’t take property taxes, insurance, or other expenses into account for the numbers illustrated on the chart below.)

Take a look at the numbers below – anything surprise you about Cleveland? About other U.S. cities?

Credit: Screenshot, HSH.com

This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2014.

Alaina Nutile is the Web Editor who oversees all digital content and social media initiatives for Cleveland Scene Magazine and Detroit Metro Times. Before joining the staff in June 2013, she interned at Business Insider in New York City, and at La Hora in Quito, Ecuador. Alaina is a graduate of Kalamazoo College in Michigan, where she double majored in English and Spanish. Her interests include Japanese food, Breaking Bad, and career development advising.

8 replies on “CHART: Here’s How Much Money You Need to Earn to Buy a Home in Cleveland”

  1. So the article is pretty much baseless since it doesn’t cover taxes and insurance. You can add another $200 to your payment and instead of ONLY making $29,000 you probably need to make closer to $35,000.

  3. Oh boy, congratulations! You can afford to make the monthly mortgage payments on a home with only earning 29k per year! Unfortunately, that doesn’t add in all the extra costs, so you actually won’t be able to make those monthly payments, meaning your home will be foreclosed and you’ll lose it.

    So the grand summary of this article? “You can afford to have a home in Cleveland for 29k, haha, just kidding!!!”

  4. Oh stop it! Cleveland bitching all of the time. Do you think taxes are lower or higher in New York and San Francisco? Cleveland taxes, as much as I hate them, are much lower as well as the cost to purchase a home but more than that. Because Cleveland is a pretty strong union city the average wage here is about equal to that of San francisco while the medium home payment is about five times that of Cleveland.

    I used to live in the bay area and had a $1600.00 gross a week paycheck but my rent for a two bedroom apartment was $1200.00 in Walnut Creek. In Cleveland when I returned my pay was about $1,000 a week with rent at about $450.00 on clifton avenue. Driving to work? forget about it. 1.5 hours a day in the bay area. In Cleveland. Oh about 20 minutes. Both ways. right down Clifton.

    For you mathematicians out there that equates to about two thirds of the income and about 3 times the rent so it is a pretty good tradeoff. Gas oline prices, long traffic lines and 10 dollare beers are just a few other things that become the norm in coastal cities. Here at 2 bucks you get a beer.

  5. Uh, look again – the chart lists mortgage payments as PITI – this means Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance. Check it with a mortgage calculator if you wish.

  6. The beauty of the internet. People can make incorrect statements like they are fact and 8 other morons will “like” it. Gordnoshnka reduced to meaningless rubble along with “I have to comment on everything” AdamHall. Tip of the hat to JD440!

  7. Its a comparative study—on average—you haters. As most of the homes are under 100k, and most people pay 600 plus for rent, you really only need the 30kish per year to own real estate.

  8. Doing the simple math here: 29788/12 = 2482 per month (before taxes). 695/2482 = 0.28 or 28%. This is maybe why Cleveland is 8th in the nation for foreclosure and serious delinquency rate? In what world should anyone be spending 28% of their pretax income on their home.

    Those that have been around the block a few times will tell you that anything over 25% post-tax is going to put a strain on your budget, big time!

    Can you afford a house on $29k per year? sure. Should you? no. Assuming you stay below the 25% number and assuming a 20% tax bracket, you’re looking more like $41,700 to afford that same PITI payment of $695.

    That sounds more like it to me.

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