Bay Area city ranked as least affordable housing in America: report

TO GO WITH AFP STORY-TECHNOLOGY-US-IT BY HELENE LABRIET-GROSS Silicon Valley’s capital city San Jose, California as seen in this aerial photo is undergoing an urban development revolution calculated to keep it as the thriving heart of a region renowned for technological innovation.The city is working to reverse a trend in which promising startups take root in suburbs and neighboring cities such as Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and Cupertino — the homes of Google, Yahoo and Apple respectively. Districts brimming with high-density housing are now blossoming near downtown office towers. There are 32,000 units in or near the city center and “enterprise incubation centers” have sprung up to nurture start-ups in the areas of software, bioscience, environment and market access. (Photo credit should read HELENE LABRIET-GROSS/AFP via Getty Images)

(KRON) — Bay Area housing affordability has always been a central topic when discussing the hurdles of living in the area. The recently released 2024 Demographia International Housing Affordability Report potentially confirms that sentiment with an interesting set of numbers.

According to the Chapman University-led report, San Jose was the least affordable major US housing market in 2023 and the fifth least affordable housing market worldwide. Not only does the South Bay city top the nation, but San Francisco also ranks as the third least affordable nationwide after Los Angeles in second place.

Top 10 ‘impossibly unaffordable’ cities worldwide:

1. Hong Kong
2. Sydney, Australia
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. San Jose, California
5. Los Angeles, California
6. Honolulu, Hawaii
7. Melbourne, Australia
8. San Francisco, California
9. Adelaide, Australia
10. San Diego, California

In the U.S. alone, San Jose is five times less affordable than Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the country’s most affordable city for housing. San Jose aside, four of the five least affordable markets nationwide were in California, the study stated. The only non-California city in the top five nationwide was Honolulu, Hawaii.

Other “severely unaffordable” markets in California include Sacramento and Fresno, according to the study.

Researchers believe much of the recent surge in unaffordability is closely linked to the pandemic. According to the study, the rates of remote workers in the United States have nearly quadrupled since 2019, claiming that “nearly two-thirds of the US house price increase in the demand shock could be attributed to the shift to remote work.”

This has led many city residents to move to more calm, suburban areas. “The result was a demand shock that drove house prices up substantially, as households moved to obtain more space, within houses and in yards or gardens,” the study states.

The study states that the increase in remote work has also led to an “unprecedented decline” in car ownership compared to pre-pandemic levels.