Report: Income needed to buy Bay Area home more than doubles over 5 years

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A new report by the California Association of Realtors found that the annual income required to buy a median-priced home in California has more than doubled over the last five years.

The report says buyers needed a minimum annual income of $110,890 to qualify for a single-family home priced at $553,260, the statewide median, in 2017.

However, the situation has grown even more dire in the Bay Area, where a minimum income of $90,370 was needed five years ago to purchase a median-priced home of $447,970. Today, the minimum required has skyrocketed to $179,390 while the median price climbed up to $895,000 for the area.

While that $179,390 might get you something in Alameda County (where the median home price is $880,000) or Solano County (where it's $412,000), it can't get you much in San Francisco, where the median home price is $1,450,000, San Mateo County ($1,469,000) or Santa Clara County ($1,183,440).

The second-quarter report also said that 29 percent of California households could afford to buy a $553,260 median-priced home, down from 32 percent in the first quarter of 2017.

California's least-affordable counties were San Francisco (where only 12 percent of buyers could afford a median-priced, single family home), San Mateo (14 percent) and Santa Barbara (16 percent). This is followed by Marin, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz (all 17 percent).

The state's most affordable counties were Tehama (57 percent), Kern (54 percent), Sutter (53 percent) and Kings and Tulare (52 percent).