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Mortgage research site HSH issued a report using data from the National Association of Realtors’ fourth quarter for home median prices and data from HSH’s fourth-quarter average interest rate for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages to determine how much of a person’s salary it would take to afford the principal interest, interest taxes, and insurance of owning a home. On a national scale, with 20 percent down, a buyer would need to earn a salary of more than $48,000 to afford a median-priced home in the U.S.
Buyers can purchase homes with a salary less than the national average, depending on the city. Pittsburgh sat high on the list in terms of affordability. The average salary needed to purchase a home in Pittsburgh is around $31,000 and the average home price is $135,000. The Steel City tied Washington, D.C. with the lowest mortgage rates at 3.98 percent. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and St. Louis also ranked high in affordability. San Francisco had the highest salary needed by far to buy a home at $142,000.
The Federal Reserve Inspector General made his findings of the investigation of discrimination in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau public Monday. The inspector general’s review found that in three of the CFPB’s six divisions in fiscal year 2012, white employees received higher performance ratings than their black colleagues, and the same was true in two of the six divisions when it came to Hispanic co-workers. While that review and the review of an outside consulting firm found there was a “statistically significant” discrepancy, there was no evidence of an intentional discrimination policy.
