Markets

Interactive: Least Affordable Housing in the U.S.

Published

7 years ago

December 27, 2016

Jeff Desjardins

The Least Affordable Housing in the United States

Interactive: Least Affordable Housing in the U.S.

It doesn’t always make sense to measure affordability by a price in absolute dollars.

With real estate in particular, every county is different and value may be relative depending on the area in question. A ranch that seems expensive to a farmer in Nebraska may be a drop in the bucket for a lawyer from Manhattan.

Today’s interactive chart from Overflow Data shows median home values plotted against median household income, which helps give you a feel for where the least affordable housing in the U.S. is located. It’s also worth noting that in this visualization, that data comes from the ACS 2011-2015 5 year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Expensive by any Measure

The least affordable housing in the U.S. falls into two categories: places that you would expect (San Francisco, New York City) and counties that may be off your radar, such as a few in Massachusetts, Washington, or Wyoming.

The Bay Area, not surprisingly, has some of the least affordable housing in the country – both in absolute terms, and in terms relative to income. There is no shortage of anecdotes for the madness occurring in San Francisco and the surrounding area, and the data reflects that.

In San Francisco proper, the median home value is $800,000 with a median income of $81,000, giving a price-to-income ratio of 9.8. Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley, housing is nearly as pricey, but many people are able to make up for it with higher incomes: San Mateo County has a ratio of 8.3, and Santa Clara County has a ratio of 7.3.

New York City, with its five boroughs, is also interesting to look at. Here they are ranked by price-to-income:

Kings County (Brooklyn): 11.8 (House value: $570,000, Income: $48,000)
New York County (Manhattan): 11.7 (House value: $849,000, Income: $73,000)
Bronx County (The Bronx): 10.6 (House value: $363,000, Income: $34,000)
Queens County (Queens): 7.8 (House value: $450,000, Income: $58,000)
Richmond County (Staten Island): 6.0 (House value: $440,000, Income: $73,000)

Brooklyn is the most expensive borough based on price-to-income, just nudging out Manhattan. The Bronx also has some of the least affordable housing in the country, mainly due to lower income levels than the rest of the city.

Pricey Enclaves

As mentioned before, states like Wyoming, Massachusetts, Colorado, and Washington also have counties that are quite expensive in terms of price-to-income.

Teton County, Wyoming: 9.1 (House value: $689,000, Income: $75,000)
Pitkin County, Colorado: 8.7 (House value: $621,000, Income: $71,000)
San Miguel County, Colorado: 9.1 (House value: $513,000, Income: $56,000)
Nantucket County, Massachusetts: 10.7 (House value: $903,000, Income: $84,000)
Dukes County, Massachusetts: 10.3 (House value: $661,000, Income: $64,000)
San Juan County, Washington: 8.3 (House value: $466,000, Income: $56,000)

Many of these, such as Teton County or Pitkin County, are located in the mountains.

Others, like the San Juans or Nantucket are made up of beautiful islands that are relatively close to major cities – in this case, Seattle and Providence/Boston respectively.

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Visualizing the Rise of the U.S. Dollar Since the 19th Century

This animated graphic shows the U.S. dollar, the world’s primary reserve currency, as a share of foreign reserves since 1900.

Creator Program

Published

11 hours ago

December 4, 2023

Dorothy Neufeld

Visualizing the Rise and Fall) of the U.S. Dollar

Visualizing the Rise of the U.S. Dollar Since the 19th Century

As the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. dollar made up 58.4% of foreign reserves held by central banks in 2022, falling near 25-year lows.

Today, emerging countries are slowly decoupling from the greenback, with foreign reserves shifting to currencies like the Chinese yuan.

At the same time, the steep appreciation of the U.S. dollar is leading countries to sell their U.S. foreign reserves to help prop up their currencies, in turn buying currencies such as the Australian and Canadian dollars to help generate higher yields.

The above animated graphic from James Eagle shows the rapid ascent of the U.S. dollar over the last century, and its gradual decline in recent years.

Dollar Dominance: A Brief History

In 1944, the U.S. dollar became the world’s reserve currency under the Bretton Woods Agreement. Over the first half of the century, the U.S. ran budget surpluses while increasing trade and economic ties with war-torn countries, expanding its influence as the world’s store of value.

Later through the 1960s, the U.S. dollar share of global foreign reserves rapidly increased as political allies stockpiled the dollar.

By 2000, dollar dominance hit a peak of 71% of global reserves. With the creation of the European Union a year earlier, countries such as China began increasing the share of euros in reserves. Between 2000 and 2005, the share of the dollar in China’s foreign exchange reserves fell by an estimated 15 percentage points.

The dollar began a long rally after the global financial crisis, which drove central banks to cut their dollar reserves to help bolster their currencies.

Fast-forward to today, and dollar reserves have fallen roughly 13 percentage points from their historical peak.

The State of the World’s Reserve Currency

In 2022, 16% of Russia’s export transactions were in yuan, up from almost nothing before the war. Brazil and Argentina have also begun adopting the Chinese currency for trade or reserve purposes. Still, the U.S. dollar makes up 80% of Brazil’s reserves.

Yet while the U.S. dollar has decreased in share of foreign reserves, it still has an immense influence in the world economy.

The majority of trade is invoiced in the U.S. dollar globally, a trend that has stayed fairly consistent over many decades. Between 1999-2019, 74% of trade in Asia was invoiced in dollars and in the Americas, it made up 96% of all invoicing.

Furthermore, almost 90% of foreign exchange transactions involve the U.S. dollar thanks to its liquidity.

However, countries are increasingly finding alternative options than the dollar. Today, Western businesses have begun settling trade with China in renminbi. Looking further ahead, digital currencies could provide options that don’t include the U.S. dollar.

Even more so, if the U.S. share of global GDP continues to shrink, the shift to a multipolar system could progress over this century.