Jed Kolko crunches the numbers to see how long the average worker would have to work in order to buy a home in different parts of the country:
If you want more affordable housing, you might guess that moving to the suburbs is the answer. Not always! You’ll actually need to work longer – earning the local average wage – to buy a home in Long Island (14.6 years) than in New York (13.4 years); more years in Ventura County (16.5 years) than in Los Angeles (15.5 years); and more years in Peabody, Massachusetts (13.5 years), than in Boston (12.1 years).
New York, Los Angeles, and Boston all have more expensive housing than Long Island, Ventura County and Peabody, respectively, but higher wages in those urban metros relative to their suburbs more than offset higher housing prices. Homes cost 27 percent more per square foot in New York than in Long Island, for example, but average wages are 40 percent higher in New York than in Long Island.
The Dish 