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A new study from brokerage and listings portal Redfin suggests the income needed to afford monthly mortgage payments on the median-priced home in Connecticut’s three biggest real estate markets grew by over 50 percent in the last year.

Economists at the brokerage calculated the monthly mortgage payment for the median-priced home in the Greater Hartford, Fairfield County and New Haven-area housing markets in October 2021 and October 2022, assuming a typical first-time buyer’s 5 percent down payment in each case. They then calculated the lowest annual salary required to afford that payment assuming a buyer spent no more than 30 percent of their income on housing payments.

The increases were a testament to how far interest rates have risen, from 3.1 percent last October to 6.9 percent this October, thanks to the Federal Reserve and the sudden evaporation of buyers from the mortgage-backed securities market.

The median-priced home in Fairfield County – called the Bridgeport metro area in Redfin’s analysis – cost its buyer $2,285 per month in October 2021. By last month, however, that had jumped 54.6 percent to $3,532. That means, Redfin researcher said, a buyer would need to make at least $141,270 the median-priced home in Fairfield County last month, up from $91,395 one year ago.

In Greater Hartford, the story was similar: The monthly mortgage payment for the median-priced home hit $2,018 last month, up 53.8 percent year-over-year, requiring at least $80,726 in annual income to afford.

New Haven buyers were relatively lucky, however. The income needed to afford the median-priced home there only jumped 50 percent to $80,726, based on a monthly mortgage payment of  $2,018.