How much house you can afford depends on where you live
“Your ability to own a home is affected by where you live. Even people with modest incomes can afford homes in Decatur, Illinois, the metropolitan area with the nation’s most affordable houses. At the other end of the affordability spectrum is the San Jose, California, metro area, where high incomes are outmatched by stratospheric home prices. A home is most affordable when it doesn’t cost much more than a year’s pay. Decatur is an affordable market because the median house costs about one and a half times the median annual income. (‘Median’ is the midpoint, where half of the values or incomes are lower and half higher.) In comparison, there’s San Jose, where a typical household earns a six-figure income but a median single-family house costs about 12 times what a typical household earns.”