Discover which cities around the globe are causing jaws to drop with their astronomical housing prices! From the bustling streets of Hong Kong to the picturesque shores of Sydney, find out why these locations are becoming increasingly unaffordable for residents and prospective homeowners alike. Uncover the surprising factors driving up prices and learn how these cities stack up against each other in the race for the title of the world’s least affordable housing market. If you’re curious about where your city stands in this eye-opening ranking, this article has all the details you need to know!
Many cities throughout the world have grown prohibitively costly to buy a property in, but which are the most inaccessible?
In this graphic, Visual Capitalist Marcus Lu ranks a variety of home markets as “impossibly unaffordable” in 2024 based on their median price-to-income ratio.
The Chapman University Center for Demographics and Policy produces the Demographia International Housing Affordability Report (see below), which provides these data.
Data and Key Takeaways
The median price-to-income ratio compares the median home price to the median household income in each market. A larger ratio (higher prices compared to salaries) indicates that a city is less affordable.
The following table contains all of the data required to make this graphic. This analysis includes 94 markets from eight countries: Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
According to the Demographia research, cities with a median price-to-income ratio of more than 9.0 are deemed “impossibly unaffordable”.
We can see that Hong Kong is the top city in this ranking, with a ratio of 16.7. This means that the median home price is 16.7 times more than the median income.
Which Cities Are More Affordable?
On the other hand, here are the top 12 most affordable cities identified in the Demographia research.
Cities with a median price-to-income ratio of less than 3.0 are deemed “affordable,” while those with a ratio of 3.1 to 4.0 are considered “moderately unaffordable.”
Recently, GreatGameIndia reported that, according to the Zumper National Rent Index, the cities with the highest rent in the US are New York City at $4,200 for a one-bedroom, followed by Jersey City and San Francisco.
