DENVER (KDVR) — Upsizing from a condo to a house is not a huge difference in annual income in Denver, thanks in part to condo prices being already some of the nation’s highest.
Real estate news and analysis site Point2Home crunched housing data in 200 U.S. cities to find which cities have the lowest bar for condo owners to jump into a detached single-family house. Researchers calculated the “price difference to income ratio,” or the number of years worth of income that it would take to match the difference between a condo and a detached home.
Depending on the city, condo-owning Coloradans could need anywhere between two and four years’ worth of income to afford a single-family home.
In Lakewood, it takes an income of 3.9 years more to afford a single-family home than a condo, which is in the top 25% nationwide and about $303,000.
It takes a smaller bump in income to jump into homeownership in Aurora and Denver. In Aurora, it takes a condo owner 2.9 more years’ worth of income to get a detached home, or $205,000. In Denver, it takes two years’ more income – about average compared to the other 200 cities, or $166,000.
The difference is smaller in Denver due in part to Denver condo prices which are some of the nation’s priciest. At $414,000, Denver’s median-priced condo is in the top 25% of expenses, on par with Elk Grove, California and Arlington, Virginia.