While the Bay Area is among the places where monthly mortgage payments are declining, it’s still the most expensive part of the U.S. to buy a home—by far according to real estate site Redfin. In San Jose, the median monthly payment is $10,825, the highest in the country, followed closely by San Francisco, where it’s $10,054.
Three other California metro areas round out the top five: Anaheim ($7,937), Oakland ($6,638) and Los Angeles ($6,169).
Just because homes cost more in California than anywhere else in the country doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the least affordable place in the country. That’s because median incomes differ from metro to metro; the typical Bay Area household, for instance, earns roughly twice as much as the typical Indianapolis household.
But taking median local incomes into account, California actually is the least affordable place to buy a home. That’s because home prices have increased faster than earnings.
In Los Angeles, a family earning the median household income of $96,509 would need to spend 77% of that to pay the median monthly mortgage payment, the highest share of any major metro. Next come four other California metros: Anaheim, where a household earning the median income of $125,038 would spend 76% of that on the median-priced home, San Jose ($173,698, 75%), San Francisco ($163,089, 74%) and San Diego ($112,482, 65%).
| Metro Summary: Median Monthly Mortgage Payment, March 2025
50 most populous U.S. metro areas for which we have sufficient data Assuming 15% down payment |
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| U.S. metro area | Median monthly mortgage payment | Median monthly mortgage payment, YoY change |
| Anaheim, CA | $7,937 | 3.2% |
| Atlanta, GA | $2,712 | 0.1% |
| Austin, TX | $3,432 | -1.1% |
| Baltimore, MD | $2,618 | 2.3% |
| Boston, MA | $5,046 | 1.2% |
| Charlotte, NC | $2,694 | 1.7% |
| Chicago, IL | $2,579 | 4.8% |
| Cincinnati, OH | $2,035 | 2.9% |
| Cleveland, OH | $1,687 | 9.3% |
| Columbus, OH | $2,411 | 1.5% |
| Dallas, TX | $3,183 | -1.0% |
| Denver, CO | $3,924 | -0.5% |
| Detroit, MI | $1,290 | 0.4% |
| Fort Lauderdale, FL | $3,193 | 0.9% |
| Fort Worth, TX | $2,723 | 0.7% |
| Houston, TX | $2,609 | 2.4% |
| Indianapolis, IN | $2,170 | 1.3% |
| Jacksonville, FL | $2,482 | -4.2% |
| Kansas City, MO | $2,258 | 3.4% |
| Las Vegas, NV | $2,920 | 2.6% |
| Los Angeles, CA | $6,169 | 4.1% |
| Miami, FL | $3,909 | 1.2% |
| Milwaukee, WI | $2,299 | 4.8% |
| Minneapolis, MN | $2,671 | 1.6% |
| Montgomery County, PA | $3,347 | 1.5% |
| Nashville, TN | $3,010 | -0.3% |
| Nassau County, NY | $5,189 | 5.4% |
| New Brunswick, NJ | $4,061 | 5.1% |
| New York, NY | $5,351 | 3.6% |
| Newark, NJ | $4,485 | 6.7% |
| Oakland, CA | $6,638 | -2.0% |
| Orlando, FL | $2,782 | -0.3% |
| Philadelphia, PA | $1,998 | 3.6% |
| Phoenix, AZ | $3,017 | 0.5% |
| Pittsburgh, PA | $1,685 | 3.7% |
| Portland, OR | $3,746 | -1.0% |
| Providence, RI | $3,451 | 5.6% |
| Riverside, CA | $4,018 | 2.1% |
| Sacramento, CA | $4,056 | 2.0% |
| San Antonio, TX | $2,390 | 0.7% |
| San Diego, CA | $6,102 | 0.9% |
| San Francisco, CA | $10,054 | -3.5% |
| San Jose, CA | $10,825 | 0.1% |
| Seattle, WA | $5,633 | -0.8% |
| St. Louis, MO | $1,831 | 4.7% |
| Tampa, FL | $2,554 | -0.6% |
| Virginia Beach, VA | $2,390 | 0.2% |
| Warren, MI | $2,137 | 2.0% |
| Washington, DC | $4,023 | 3.1% |
| West Palm Beach, FL | $3,643 | -1.6% |
