Remember in high school when that one teacher would sit you down and figure out how much money you’d need to make in the “real world” in order to afford rent, food, clothes, etc.? (Yep, kind of like the pilot of The Cosby Show.) Well, now you only have to look to the internet for this bracing “real world” wake-up call. For instance, wanna buy a home in Milwaukee? According to a new report from mortgage resource site HSH.com, you need to be currently pulling down $57,416.85 a year in order to afford a median-priced home in the Milwaukee metro area (a median-priced home in the Milwaukee metro area being $246,900). Wanna put 10 percent down instead of 20? Then you’re up to $65,714.71.
When compared to the national 20-percent average of $56,159.89, Milwaukee lands in the 25 most expensive metro areas in the country, alongside heavy hitters like San Jose ($221,363.63), San Francisco ($181,341.49), and New York City ($99,136.79). The cheapest metro area, per HSH’s numbers, is Pittsburgh ($35,329.29).
See the rest of the Milwaukee numbers here, and the full report and methodology here.