Pittsburgh is one of the top 10 most affordable housing markets in the United States according to the Mortgage Monitor Report released by The Data & Analytics division of Black Knight, Inc. This report is based on the company’s industry-leading mortgage, real estate and public records datasets.
With a mortgage payment to income ratio of 22.7%, Pittsburgh is only beat in affordability by Hartford, CT and Cleveland, OH.
In contrast, markets on the West Coast continue to perform as some of the most unaffordable markets in the US, with the east coast New York City, NY and Miami, FL markets also joining ranks.
Black Knight’s home price index also shows positive trends for the Pittsburgh market and other eastern metropolises that are showing gains in appreciation while home values slump in many western markets.
In all of the 12 major housing markets west of Texas, plus Austin, home prices fell in January on an annual basis, according to the index. In the 37 biggest metro areas east of Colorado, except Austin, home prices rose year-over-year.
After the pandemic-driven housing boom and low mortgage rates boosted prices across the U.S., the country’s housing markets are now dividing, responding to local factors such as affordability, housing availability and job growth.
Many markets in the West have enjoyed long enduring housing price increases since the 1990s, fed by the quickly growing tech industry. Now, these cities have the fastest falling home prices. For example, San Jose and San Francisco home prices were down more than 10% from a year earlier in January, and Seattle prices fell 7.5%.
According to Black Knight, the metro areas posting the biggest price declines tend to fall into two categories: markets where prices skyrocketed in recent years as people moved in from other states, such as Phoenix and Austin, and markets where prices didn’t surge as dramatically during the boom but that were already prohibitively expensive, such as San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In the East, cities less impacted by tech have been growing steadily as they continue to attract companies, add jobs and have more affordable housing even with the market’s appreciating values. Additionally, low inventory in many markets like Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Hartford, have added additional support to annual price gains.
These data sets show positive news for cities like Pittsburgh. While many larger cities are facing the consequences of a fallout from the post-COVID housing boom, smaller cities, especially in the East, are remaining less affected thanks to a variety of factors.
These data sets show that buying a home in Pittsburgh is still a safe investment. Our market, year over year, has proved to be resilient and not fall victim to many of the booms and plummets we see in larger urban centers.