California dominates top 10 priciest U.S. cities for homeowners — here’s what you need to earn

• California dominates US housing costs, with 9 of 10 priciest metros; San Jose leads at $11,690/month.
• San Francisco and Los Angeles also rank high, requiring annual incomes of $358,090 and $301,221 respectively.
• Despite a slight decline in income requirements since 2025, affordability remains a distant dream for many.

From Silicon Valley to San Diego, the Golden State boasts nine of the 10 most expensive metropolitan areas in the US for homeowners, a new report revealed.

San Jose landed in the top spot, followed by San Francisco at No. 2 and Los Angeles at No. 5.

An analysis from ConsumerAffairs examined monthly home payments across 200 of the nation’s largest metro areas to determine the income needed to afford a home in each location.

In San Jose, that monthly cost came out to a staggering $11,690 — making it by far the the most expensive US metro for homeowners for the second year in a row.

Buyers now need to earn an eye-popping $501,012 in annual income to afford a typical property.

That figure dwarfs the city’s actual median household income of $164,801, exceeding it by a massive 204%, according to the report. It also far surpasses the national median household income of $81,604.

With a median home price of more than $1.55 million, ownership in the Silicon Valley city remains out of reach for most residents.

Nearby San Francisco ranked the second most expensive, with monthly housing costs at $8,355 and buyers needing to earn $358,090 annually to afford a home there, the analysis found.

In Los Angeles, monthly costs averaged $7,029, with buyers needing to earn $301,221.

The 10 most expensive metro areas in the US and their average monthly costs:

• 1. San Jose: $11,690
• 2. San Francisco: $8,355
• 3. Santa Cruz: $354,973
• 4. Santa Maria: $305,535
• 5. Los Angeles: $301,221
• 6. San Diego: $293,618
• 7. San Luis Obispo: $280,591
• 8. Oxnard: $276,805
• 9. Salinas: $262,403
• 10. Honolulu, Hawaii: $255,280

The only metro outside California to crack the top 10 was Honolulu.

The divide across the country is stark.

The gap between the income needed to buy a home in San Jose compared to Huntington, West Virginia, the most affordable metro in the analysis, stood at a staggering $447,362.

Despite the sky-high costs, there is a slight silver lining: Income requirements in each of the top 10 cities in the ranking declined more than the average national drop of 3.2% since 2025.

Still, affordability remains a distant dream for many Americans.

The last time a typical US household could comfortably follow the 28% rule — spending no more than 28% of income on housing — was in 2015, when incomes exceeded required levels by just 0.4%.

Today, buyers need 48% more income than the median household earns nationwide.

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