​See Twin Cities Suburb Where $630K Income Deemed ‘Affordable’​

HENNEPIN COUNTY, MN — It’s likely not news to you that single-family house prices in the Twin Cities are expensive, and finding one you can afford is like winning the lottery. People with household incomes less than $100,000 will find it especially challenging.

What might be news to you is that in some metro suburbs, especially the ones around Lake Minnetonka, an income well north of half a million is needed to afford a house.

But Greenwood, a small community that borders Excelsior and sits on the lower portion of Lake Minnetonka, takes the proverbial cake.

You need an annual salary of at least $630,000 to afford a house in Greenwood, according to the Star Tribune’s latest housing market analysis.

“Affordable” was calculated by the Star Tribune “assuming a 6.6 percent interest rate on a 30-year mortgage, that the buyer would pay 10 percent of the total cost in a downpayment, that the buyer would not spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, a property tax rate of 1.2 percent and a home-insurance rate of 0.05 percent.”

The total population of Greenwood is 726, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census. The median household income there is $197,000, which means current residents would likely get outbid on their own homes if they had to buy them now.

See which communities you can afford to live in on the Star Tribune’s “hot housing index” tool.