New York City took the biggest bite.
American companies use the study as an evaluation tool in making relocation and expansion decisions.
Homeowners in coastal California and those in northeastern markets still pay roughly twice as much of their income to acquire housing as those in many urban areas in the Central and Southeast United States. The region extending from Texas north to Missouri has five of the ten most affordable large housing markets in the country. Not all of California and the Northeast are inordinately costly. Better value may also soon surface in Hawaii, where home ownership hasn't been very accessible in recent years. Boston's housing affordability continues to worsen, primarily due to rising rents during the past year.