Just 13% of LA and OC residents can afford to buy a home, analysis shows

^{Note: This story was originally posted by ABC7.com by David González and Grace Manthey on November 22, 2022.}

The red hot housing market cooled down this year after mortgage interest rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage more than doubled over the last 12 months to about 7%.

“That definitely affected the housing market in terms of sales,” said Oscar Wei, the deputy chief economist for the California Association of Realtors. “Also maybe actually slowing down price growth quite a bit.”

CAR data shows the typical price for single family homes across Southern California is about $743,000. That’s down about 8% from a peak in May, but still up about 2% from last year.

The most expensive county is Orange County, where the typical home cost $1.2 million as of October.

“If somebody actually put a 20% down payment and, one third of their income for housing costs, for Orange County for example, we’re looking at a household income of roughly about $278,000,” Wei said.

An analysis by real estate company Redfin found the annual salary needed to afford a typical mortgage in Anaheim, for example, would be more than $254,000.

The typical annual household income is in Anaheim is about $77,000, according to Census data.

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