Report: Silicon Valley's housing affordability crisis worsens
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Less than 25 percent of workers and just 40 percent of households in metro San Jose are able to rent or buy average-priced housing, according to a new report from the Silicon Valley Competitiveness and Innovation Project.
The new analysis underscores some of the region's long-term affordability trends and the impact on quality of life and business competitiveness. Compiled by Peninsula-based Collaborative Economics, the data show that the average rent in May for a two-bedroom apartment in metro San Jose was $2,917 -- and that residents would need to earn $116,680 annually to afford that. Yet the median income in the area was $57,400 for individual workers and $91,500 for households, according to the most recently available statistics, the study says.
... Citing data from the California Association of Realtors for the first quarter of 2015, the report says only 44 percent of Santa Clara County households could afford to purchase an entry-level home -- defined as costing $833,850, or 85 percent of the county's median sale price. That percentage shrank to 29 percent in San Mateo County (where an entry-level home was $1.11 million in the first quarter) and 27 percent in San Francisco ($1.15 million).
Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_28512250/report-silicon-valleys-housing-affordability-crisis-worsens