The top 10 U.S. neighborhoods where prospective buyers must earn the most to afford a home. 80 of them are located in California.

Buying a home is already a significant, and sometimes even scary, transaction in and of itself, but when you add the current state of the real estate market, the process becomes even more daunting. ATTOM, a real estate data provider, has ranked the U.S. counties that require the highest annual salaries to buy a median-priced home. As noted in the report for the second quarter of 2022, the median home price in the U.S. is $440,300, generally speaking it would take a minimum salary of $75,000 to buy a median-priced home in half of U.S. real estate markets. The highest salaries needed to buy a home are found in the states of New York and California.

There's a list of 10 U.S. counties where''Potential buyers need the highest incomes to buy a home:

Manhattan County, New York.
S San Mateo County, California.
Marin County, California.
Santa Clara County, California.
San Francisco County, California.
Santa Cruz County, California.
Alameda County, California.
Orange County, California.
Kings County, New York.
Napa County, California.

Manhattan Borough in New York ranks as the top county in the United States where buyers need to earn the highest amount of money to buy a home.

Rent flat in New York 52 398,00 $

USA,New York

4 Bedrooms

5 Bathrooms

382 м²

Rent house in LA 7 667,00 $

USA,LA

4 Bedrooms

5 Bathrooms

222 м²

Sale flat in Santa Monica 1 823 651,00 $

USA,Santa Monica

2 Bedrooms

2 Bathrooms

138 м²

Sale house in San Francisco 9 057 625,00 $

USA,San Francisco

4 Bedrooms

6 Bathrooms

447 м²

Sale house in New York 2 469 114,00 $

USA,New York

2 Bedrooms

2 Bathrooms

134 м²

Sale flat in Alicante 1 781 276,00 $

Portugal,Alicante

3 Bedrooms

1 Bathroom

131 м²

Potential buyers will need to earn more than $383,062 annually to afford the median home price, according to an ATTOM report. The median cost''homes in New York County is $1,199,964, which is actually a decrease of 6.3% from last year. Manhattan is known for its attractions such as Times Square, Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and more.

The County of San Mateo in California ranks second on the list. It is at the center of a continuous urban area stretching from San Jose (Santa Clara County) in the south to San Francisco County in the north, as indicated by the California Employment Development Department. San Mateo is one of nine counties that contribute significantly to the San Francisco Bay Area economy. In May 2023, home prices in San Mateo County fell 8.2% from a year earlier, with a median price of $1.6 million,''according to RedFin.

Third place goes to Marin County in California. It is on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge relative to San Francisco and is also part of the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, California statistical agglomeration. Potential buyers need to earn more than $352,153 annually to afford the median home price in this county. The median home price in Marin County is $1,466,631, down 7.4 percent from a year earlier, according to Zillow.