Housing Affordability For All Californians Deteriorated In 2023

According to the California Association of Realtors, less than one in five of all Californians earned enough income to support the purchase of an $813,980 statewide median-priced home in 2023, down from just over one in five from 2022. Assuming a 20 percent down payment on a $813,890 median-priced home, a minimum annual income of $204,800 was needed to make monthly payments of $4,190, including principal, interest, and taxes at 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at a 6.66 percent interest rate.

At the same time, housing affordability for White households fell from 25 percent in 2022 to 21 percent in 2023. Nine percent of Black and Latino households could afford the same median-priced home in 2023, down from 11 percent for both groups. 

Housing affordability was better for Asians but also declined from the prior year, with the index registering 28 percent of Asian homebuyers who could afford the median-priced home in 2023, down from 32 percent in 2022, according to CAR’s Housing Affordability Index.

The 2023 California median income for Whites was $103,870, $120,630 for Asians, $75,950 for Latinos and $63,800 for Blacks—an income gap of nearly one-third that of the overall population, which was $92,420.

The affordability gap between Black households and the overall population last year was the largest in Contra Costa, San Francisco and Fresno counties. The affordability gap between Latinos and the overall population  was the biggest in Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Alameda and Solano counties.

According to CAR, San Francisco and San Diego were the least affordable counties for Black households, while Los Angeles and Orange County were the least affordable counties for Latino buyers in 2023.