Housing Market 2024: 10 Places Where You Need $500K Just To Meet the Down Payment

According to the National Association of Realtors, over the past year or so, the housing market has been one of the most unaffordable in history. This determination is based on a combination of factors, including home prices and incomes. Specifically, a home is considered “unaffordable” if it costs more than 28% of a household’s annual income.

Of course, real estate is always local, so there are various pockets across America where homes are more unaffordable than others. To determine where those areas are, GOBankingRates looked at home prices across the 2,500 largest ZIP codes in America, using Zillow data from November 2023. GOBankingRates then calculated both the required amount for a 20% down payment and the mortgage for those home prices, using a 6.62% mortgage with a fixed, 30-year term. Results are presented below, with cities — broken out by specific ZIP codes — ranked in reverse order with the most expensive down payment coming last.

• 2023 average home value: $2,617,860
• 20% down: $523,572
• Monthly mortgage payment: $13,403

• 2023 average home value: $2,717,587
• 20% down: $543,517
• Monthly mortgage payment: $13,914

• 2023 average home value: $2,808,731
• 20% down: $561,746
• Monthly mortgage payment: $14,380

• 2023 average home value: $2,850,216
• 20% down: $570,043
• Monthly mortgage payment: $14,593

• 2023 average home value: $2,929,695
• 20% down: $585,939
• Monthly mortgage payment: $15,000

• 2023 average home value: $2,940,281
• 20% down: $588,056
• Monthly mortgage payment: $15,054

• 2023 average home value: $3,178,598
• 20% down: $635,720
• Monthly mortgage payment: $16,274

• 2023 average home value: $3,263,479
• 20% down: $652,696
• Monthly mortgage payment: $16,709

• 2023 average home value: $3,289,757
• 20% down: $657,951
• Monthly mortgage payment: $16,843

Methodology: For this piece, GOBankingRates found the 2,500 largest ZIP codes’ (1) 2023 average home value from Zillow’s November 2023 data. Once this figure was found, GOBankingRates found the (2) monthly mortgage payment for each ZIP code by assuming one is taking a 30-year fixed rate loan with a 6.62% interest rate, as sourced from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis on Jan. 4, 2024. From there, GOBankingRates found the 50 most expensive ZIP codes where one would need a six-figure salary to comfortably afford the mortgage payment (no more than 30% of gross income going towards the mortgage payment). All data was collected and is up to date as of Jan. 8, 2024.