San Diego Surpasses San Francisco As The Least Affordable Metro In The U.S.

The median home sold price in San Diego jumped by 14.3% in Jan. 2022 to $764,000, bringing the city’s unaffordability score — a ratio of home sold price to median household income — to 8.1, according to OJO Labs.

Despite San Francisco still boasting the most expensive housing stock of any metro in the U.S., a 4.2% home sold price decrease in Jan. on an annual basis actually drove San Francisco’s unaffordability score below 8 for the first time since OJO Labs began tracking the data in July 2021, according to Patrick Kearns, director of storytelling for OJO Labs. In Jan. 2022, San Francisco’s unaffordability score fell to 7.9, down from 9.2 last month.

Other least affordable metros include Los Angeles; Mobile, AL; Pensacola, FL; and Boise, ID rounding out the top five. Austin, TX saw the biggest home price increase of any metro area in the U.S., with home prices rising 35.5% year over year, according to the data from OJO Labs real estate search site Movoto by OJO.

On the opposite end, Green Bay-Appleton, WI continued to be the most affordable of the top 50 metro areas in the nation in terms of homes sold. The median price for a home sold in Green Bay-Appleton was $149,900, an increase of 11.9% from the year prior, as of Jan.