10 Least-Affordable Housing Markets in the United States

If where you want to live doesn't match what you can pay, you're not alone. According to the real estate data collectors at Black Knight (NYSE:BKI), soaring prices and interest rates have home affordability at its lowest level in 30 years or more in 71 of the country's 100 largest markets.

Black Knight says that nationwide, it now takes about 35% of median income to afford the payment and interest (P&I) on the median home with 20% down and a 30-year mortgage. These 10 markets are way more expensive than that.

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The City of Angels is not so angelic in this regard: It takes 72.1% of the median income to cover the $1 million median home price in our nation's second-largest market. Black Knight says that's up from the 35.5% this measurement averaged back in 1995-2003, also the highest rate of growing affordability over that time.

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Black Knight says the payment-to-income ratio for a median-priced home in San Diego has shot up 30% since 1995-2003 and now stands at 64.2%. The median home price here is right at $900,000, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), and has risen 12.6% in the past year.

Silicon Valley is scenic but super expensive. The NAR pegs the median home price in the San Jose market at about $1.25 million, and Black Knight data says it takes 61.3% of the median household income to make that mortgage. That's 27 percentage points higher than the 34% ratio recorded as the average in this market from 1995 to 2003.

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The City by the Bay is even pricier. The median home price in San Francisco stands at about $1.3 million, up about 3% from a year ago. Black Knight data says affordability has fallen by 27 percentage points since 1995-2003, putting the current payment-to-income ratio at 56.7% compared with 35% back then.

It's cheaper to buy in Las Vegas -- the NAR pegs the median home price at $450,000 -- but this service industry-driven economy provides a median income that, together with that price tag, yields a payment-to-income ratio of 54.1%, the fifth-highest among the country's major markets.

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Miami is hot, hot, hot. The median home price here, according to the most recent NAR data, was $590,000 -- up a full 25% from just last year. Black Knight says it takes 50.4% of the median household income to cover that payment, 26 percentage points more than in 1995-2003.

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It can take big bucks to live in the Big Apple. The NAR says the median price in Manhattan is about $1.5 million. Meanwhile, make that $360,000 just across the Hudson. The New York City-Newark market studied by Black Knight has a payment-to-income ratio of 48.7%, compared with 28.1% in 1995-2003.

The big Riverside market in Southern California had a median listing price, per the NAR, of $615,000 in September, up 6.8% since last year at this time. Black Knight puts the payment-to-income ratio at 47.4%, up 22.1 percentage points from the 25.7% this metric averaged in this market from 1995 to 2003.

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The median home price in Seattle rose 13.5% year over year in September, and that $850,000 typical price tag generates a payment-to-income ratio of 47.4%, Black Knight says. Back in 1995-2003, the average was a much more manageable 27.2%.

The median home price of $468,000 in California's capital city is less than half of the pricier places in the Golden State. That makes it a tempting target for folks who might be fleeing, say, the nearby Bay Area market. However, the Sacramento market still commands 46.1% of the median income to buy a house here, placing it in the top 10 of this list of the least-affordable major markets in the country.

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Nationally, home prices have quit rising so fast and may be falling already in some places. Interest rates, however, remain high. Prospective homebuyers have options other than these high-dollar markets we just listed. Check out 15 of the Most Affordable Housing Markets in the Country.

Marc Rapport has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.