real estate

Brooklyn Is the Least Affordable Housing Market in the Country

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 04: People walk by new apartment buildings near the waterfront in the rapidly developing neighborhood of Williamsburg on April 4, 2013 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Two Trees management, which owns the closed Domino Sugar factory, has unveiled new plans for the site that will include more than half a million square feet of office space, 228,000 square feet of open space and 2,284 apartments and retail space. The plan is a continuation of the rapid development of the Williamsburg waterfront which offers Manhattan views and water taxis to other parts of New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Williamsburgh. Photo: Spencer Platt/2013 Getty Images

Brooklyn real estate is more expensive than ever, and according to one new study that looked at 475 counties around the country, the borough now also has the dubious distinction of being the U.S.’s least affordable housing market.

Via Bloomberg:

Of the 475 counties analyzed by RealtyTrac through October, 98 areas weren’t as affordable compared with the average level for the period starting in January 2000, the Irvine, California-based data company said in a report today. Brooklyn, New York, where a resident would need to devote 98 percent of the median income to afford the payment on a median-priced home of $615,000, was the least-affordable market, followed by San Francisco and Manhattan.

The study’s calculations used the median household income required to make the monthly payments on a median-priced home from 2000 through October. Brooklyn, by the way, was also among the 12 percent of counties studied in which the median home price is higher now than at the peak of the 2005 to 2008 property bubble.

Brooklyn Is the Least Affordable Place in U.S.