The World’s Least Affordable Housing Markets in 2024
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Many cities around the world have become very expensive to buy a home in, but which ones are the absolute most unattainable?
In this graphic, we highlight a number of housing markets that are deemed to be “impossibly unaffordable” in 2024, ranked by their median price-to-income ratio.
This data comes from the Demographia International Housing Affordability Report, which is produced by the Chapman University Center for Demographics and Policy.
Data and Key Takeaway
The median price-to-income ratio compares median house price to median household income within each market. A higher ratio (higher prices relative to incomes) means a city is less affordable.
See the following table for all of the data we used to create this graphic. Note that this analysis covers 94 markets across eight countries: Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
| Rank | Metropolitan Market | Country | Median price-to-income ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hong Kong (SAR) | 🇨🇳 China | 16.7 |
| 2 | Sydney | 🇦🇺 Australia | 13.8 |
| 3 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | 12.3 |
| 4 | San Jose | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 11.9 |
| 5 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 10.9 |
| 6 | Honolulu | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 10.5 |
| 7 | Melbourne | 🇦🇺 Australia | 9.8 |
| 8 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 9.7 |
| 9 | Adelaide | 🇦🇺 Australia | 9.7 |
| 10 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 9.5 |
| 11 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | 9.3 |
| 12 | Auckland | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | 8.2 |
According to the Demographia report, cities with a median price-to-income ratio of over 9.0 are considered “impossibly unaffordable”.
We can see that the top city in this ranking, Hong Kong, has a ratio of 16.7. This means that the median price of a home is 16.7 times greater than the median income.
Which Cities are More Affordable?
On the flipside, here are the top 12 most affordable cities that were analyzed in the Demographia report.
| Rank | Metropolitan Market | Country | Median price-to-income ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pittsburgh | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 3.1 |
| 2 | Rochester | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 3.4 |
| 2 | St. Louis | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 3.4 |
| 4 | Cleveland | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 3.5 |
| 5 | Edmonton | 🇨🇦 Canada | 3.6 |
| 5 | Buffalo | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 3.6 |
| 5 | Detroit | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 3.6 |
| 5 | Oklahoma City | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 3.6 |
| 9 | Cincinnati | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 3.7 |
| 9 | Louisville | 🇺🇸 U.S. | 3.7 |
| 11 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 3.8 |
| 12 | Blackpool & Lancashire | 🇬🇧 U.K. | 3.9 |
Cities with a median price-to-income ratio of less than 3.0 are considered “affordable”, while those between 3.1 and 4.0 are considered “moderately unaffordable”.
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