Community Corner

Analysis: Less Household Income Needed For Mortgages in Contra Costa, Solano Counties

As a percentage of their household income, residents of Solano and Contra Costa Counties pay much less for housing than other Bay Area neighbors.

If you want to buy a home in the Bay Area, your household dollar will stretch much further in Solano and Contra Costa counties than anywhere else.

Meshing two data reports that were just released, Solano County residents earning a county median household income of $69,006 are surrounded by homes that have a median price of $275,000. Taken as a percentage, those resident's yearly incomes are more than 25 percent of the median home price in Solano County.

Move to Marin County, however, and the percentage of household income to median home prices drops dramatically. In Marin, though your median household income may rise to $90,962, the median home price also rises - to $741,250 - and the percentage of income to home price drops by more than half - to 12.3 percent.

The data comes from the latest DataQuick figures and from Census Explorer, a new online tool introduced by the Census Bureau.

Local median household income as a percentage of local median housing cost:

Solano - 25.1% - ($69,006/$275,000)
Contra Costa - 19.1% - ($78,187/$410,000)
Sonoma - 15.2% - ($63,565/$418,750)
Alameda - 13.8% - ($71,516/$518,500)
Santa Clara - 13.6% - ($90,747/$667,500)
San Mateo - 12.5% - ($87,751/$700,000)
Marin - 12.3% - ($90,962/$741,250)

The chart above indicates how Bay Area residents fare when comparing the median income from their county to the most recent median home prices in the Bay Area.

(If you don't see your county, simply run your mouse cursor over the counties shown on the bottom of the chart, and it will appear.)


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