Everyone knows that Brooklyn is an expensive place to live. In fact, it’s the least affordable place to buy a home — anywhere in the U.S.

And, as you might expect, buying a home in the borough will cost you more money than you make in a year — if your income is about average.

According to a study by housing and real estate data company ATTOM Data Solutions, Brooklyn was rated the least affordable, followed by Santa Cruz County and Marin County, both in northern California.

In Brooklyn, a whopping 123.5 percent of average annual wages would be needed to buy the median-priced home, coming in nearly 12 percentage points above Santa Cruz. The study compared average income and median home prices. Separately, it also ranked regions by closing costs.

Image by ATTOM Data Solutions
Image by ATTOM Data Solutions

Brooklyn also had the second highest closing costs on home purchases in country at nearly $21,000 on a purchase, behind only Manhattan. These costs were 47 percent of average yearly wages of a Brooklynite.

Photo by Mary Hautman
Photo by Mary Hautman

Brooklyn’s high home prices, like those in the counties surrounding San Francisco and San Jose, come from people leaving the city center due to high prices, and thus driving prices up in the surrounding area, according to the report.

While there is probably no better way to estimate or rank affordability than comparing average incomes with median home prices, factors such as the number of retirees, students and people living in low-income housing can affect the conclusions. That may be the case in Santa Cruz, a beach retirement community whose population is about one-sixth students.

This is not the first time RealtyTrac has rated Brooklyn the least affordable place to buy a home in the U.S. Brooklyn was least affordable, followed by Manhattan and San Francisco, in 2014, as we reported then.

The report fits with an earlier study that found Brooklyn has one of the lowest home ownership rates in the nation.

[h/t Brokelyn]

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