San Francisco home prices gain US$60 an hour – four times the minimum hourly wage of US$14
San Francisco and San Jose are expected to be among the most expensive markets in the US this year, according to real estate site Zillow
Houses in San Francisco earn more per hour than most of their owners – or anyone else, for that matter – do at work, a new report finds.
The study by property site Zillow finds that houses in the Bay Area city typically appreciate at a rate of US$60.13 for each working hour, calculated based on a 40-hour work week.
Minimum wage workers in San Francisco currently take home US$14 an hour, rising to US$15 an hour this summer. And the average hourly wage in the San Francisco-San Mateo metro area was US$36.61 in 2016, reported the US Labor Department. The national average hourly wage was US$23.86.
In nearby San Jose, California, meanwhile, homes typically appreciate US$98.81 per working hour, Zillow reports. The city has a minimum wage of US$13.50 an hour.
The typical US homeowner earns US$7.09 in equity for each working hour, compared to the federal minimum wage of US$7.25 an hour, according to the report.
The Zillow report compares the average equity gain per working hour to the minimum wage in 50 US cities. Of course, housing prices and hourly pay are not exactly equivalent, the study concedes. The comparisons are more of a number-crunching exercise.