Got $3,820 a month? Riverside County house payments jump 105% in 5 years

Some think that living in Riverside is cheap.  But, in the past five years, under Newsom and Biden, the cost has gone up by 105% to almost $4,000 a month!!

“A typical Riverside County buyer in November got a $3,820 monthly payment, assuming a 20% downpayment. That’s the sixth-highest since 1988, flat with a year ago and 105% higher in five years.

Adding to local homebuying’s financial challenge are the wages required to complete a purchase. If this hypothetical buyer spends 40% of their income on this payment, they’d need to earn $115,000 a year – plus have $117,000 in cash for the downpayment.

This is how the Democrats are getting the middle class to leave the State.  The rich can afford it.  The poor have tax free programs to finance living here.  

Got $3,820 a month? Riverside County house payments jump 105% in 5 years

Median prices up 44% over five years

By Jonathan Lansner, Orange County Register, 1/23/25  https://www.pressenterprise.com/2025/01/21/got-3820-a-month-riverside-county-house-payments-up-105-in-5-years/?utm_email=95C3E5E4E4E5A580647814C571&lctg=95C3E5E4E4E5A580647814C571&active=no&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=https%3a%2f%2fwww.pressenterprise.com%2f2025%2f01%2f21%2fgot-3820-a-month-riverside-county-house-payments-up-105-in-5-years%2f&utm_campaign=scng-pe-localist-eve&utm_content=curated

“How expensive?” tracks measurements of California’s totally unaffordable housing market.

Buzz: Riverside County house hunters face potential house payments that have basically doubled in five years.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet tracked this yardstick of affordability by looking at its history of CoreLogic homebuying stats and swings in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate from Freddie Mac. Estimated payments were calculated by combining a month’s median sales price and mortgage rate.

The pain

A typical Riverside County buyer in November got a $3,820 monthly payment, assuming a 20% downpayment. That’s the sixth-highest since 1988, flat with a year ago and 105% higher in five years.

Adding to local homebuying’s financial challenge are the wages required to complete a purchase. If this hypothetical buyer spends 40% of their income on this payment, they’d need to earn $115,000 a year – plus have $117,000 in cash for the downpayment.

Pressure points

Why? Start with the Riverside County median sales price of $585,000 for the month. That’s second-largest since 1988, 7% above a year ago and 44% over five years. Compound that with mortgage rate gyrations.

Now November’s 6.8% average is below 7.4% a year earlier, but this financing benchmark was 6.8% two years ago, 3.7% five years ago, and has averaged 6.2% since 1988.

Bottom line

Stubbornly lofty prices and rates add up to dramatically slower homebuying in Riverside County.

Contemplate that buyers completed 2,860 transactions a month on average during the last two years, a pace 31% below the previous two years and 19% slower than sales counts since 1988.

Or look at the slump this way: Only 23% of all two-year periods since 1988 have fewer sales.

PS: The best news for house hunters is growing choice.

Countywide, there were 5,320 average active listings of existing homes during the past year, according to Realtor.com. This supply of residences for sale is 22% above the previous 12 months – but 37% smaller than pre-pandemic 2019.