15 Places Where Construction Workers Struggle to Afford Homes


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Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Construction Coverage.

Elevated home prices and an inadequate homebuilding pace are making it difficult for construction workers to afford to purchase a home in the cities where they work.

Compounding the issue, wages for construction workers have not kept pace with recent inflation. At the same time, the housing market has become significantly more unaffordable over the past four years.

Inflated home prices in many cities mean that the workers who build homes often cannot afford to buy them.

To find where construction workers struggle the most to afford homes, researchers at Construction Coverage conducted an analysis using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Zillow, and the U.S. Census Bureau. For more information, see the methodology section at the end.

Here are the most unaffordable major metro areas for construction workers.

15. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH

Boston, Massachusetts
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  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 75
  • Median hourly wage: $37.70
  • Median home price: $706,039
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $3,656
  • Overall homeownership rate: 61.5%

14. Raleigh-Cary, NC

Raleigh, North Carolina
Sean Pavone / Shutterstock.com
  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 76
  • Median hourly wage: $23.64
  • Median home price: $448,653
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $2,323
  • Overall homeownership rate: 67.8%

13. Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA

Homes in Sacramento, California
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  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 76
  • Median hourly wage: $30.90
  • Median home price: $585,948
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $3,034
  • Overall homeownership rate: 62.8%

12. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA

Downtown Newark, New Jersey
Leonid Andronov / Shutterstock.com
  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 76
  • Median hourly wage: $34.87
  • Median home price: $668,361
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $3,461
  • Overall homeownership rate: 51.7%

11. Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX

Downtown Austin, Texas
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  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 80
  • Median hourly wage: $23.15
  • Median home price: $466,103
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $2,414
  • Overall homeownership rate: 58.8%

10. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Homes in Alexandria, Virginia
Jon Bilous / Shutterstock.com
  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 80
  • Median hourly wage: $28.20
  • Median home price: $569,099
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $2,947
  • Overall homeownership rate: 63.9%

9. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA

Riverside California neighborhood
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  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 80
  • Median hourly wage: $29.36
  • Median home price: $586,146
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $3,035
  • Overall homeownership rate: 65.8%

8. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

Home in the Queen Anne district of Seattle
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  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 81
  • Median hourly wage: $36.63
  • Median home price: $748,591
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $3,876
  • Overall homeownership rate: 59.8%

7. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO

Denver, Colorado
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  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 82
  • Median hourly wage: $28.88
  • Median home price: $592,720
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $3,069
  • Overall homeownership rate: 64.5%

6. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL

Florida condos in Miami
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  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 83
  • Median hourly wage: $23.64
  • Median home price: $490,171
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $2,538
  • Overall homeownership rate: 59.9%

5. Salt Lake City, UT

Salt Lake City, Utah
Rigucci / Shutterstock.com
  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 84
  • Median hourly wage: $26.17
  • Median home price: $548,835
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $2,842
  • Overall homeownership rate: 67.6%

4. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

Anaheim California neighborhood
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  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 125
  • Median hourly wage: $30.76
  • Median home price: $966,786
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $5,006
  • Overall homeownership rate: 47.9%

3. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA

San Diego Home
Rigucci / Shutterstock.com
  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 126
  • Median hourly wage: $30.37
  • Median home price: $957,582
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $4,959
  • Overall homeownership rate: 54.5%

2. San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA

Homes in San Francisco, California
Sergey Novikov / Shutterstock.com
  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 126
  • Median hourly wage: $37.43
  • Median home price: $1,180,321
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $6,112
  • Overall homeownership rate: 56.2%

1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

San Jose Houses
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  • Weekly hours needed to afford a median-priced home: 175
  • Median hourly wage: $37.05
  • Median home price: $1,624,016
  • Monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home: $8,409
  • Overall homeownership rate: 54.9%

Methodology

Construction workers fabricating steel reinforcement bar at a construction site
Bannafarsai_Stock / Shutterstock.com

To find the metropolitan areas where construction workers would have to work the longest hours to afford a home in their city, researchers at Construction Coverage analyzed the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2023 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey, and Zillow’s Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) data, a measure of typical home value.

The researchers ranked locations according to the number of weekly work hours needed for a construction worker earning the median hourly wage to afford a median-priced home in their location.

For the purposes of this analysis, it was assumed that construction workers do not spend more than 30% of their wages on their monthly mortgage payment. The mortgage payment for a median-priced home was calculated assuming a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, a 20% down payment, and a 6.73% interest rate — the U.S. average as of August 2024.

The researchers also calculated the median-priced home was calculated using Zillow’s ZHVI value from June 2024. In the event of a tie, the location with the larger median hourly wage for construction workers was ranked higher.



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