If you’re thinking about buying property in California, you might need to see how deep your pockets go. While the Golden State is known for its beaches and endless summers, it’s also home to some of the priciest real estate in the country. According to Credit Karma user data,* of the 15 U.S. cities where our members have the highest average mortgages, 14 were located in California. Bellevue, Washington—the only city located in a different state—claims the 14th spot on the list.
Not surprisingly, in these cities sky-high housing costs come hand-in-hand with higher household income. The top 8 cities on the list all have median household incomes of over $100,000, according to US Census data, which is more than twice the U.S. level.
The flipside however, is that expensive average mortgages translates into lower rates of home ownership. Looking at Credit Karma data, in all but two cities on our list, members carried mortgages at rates significantly less than our nationwide average.
To see if your city made the list, read the full list below.
15 US Cities With the Highest Average Mortgage
- San Francisco, CA, $505,072.32
- Sunnyvale, CA, $484,293.69
- Santa Clara, CA, $455,745.53
- Carlsbad, CA, $452,528.09
- Irvine, CA, $452,267.60
- Fremont, CA, $434,934.84
- San Jose, CA, $429,230.57
- Thousand Oaks, CA, $415,019.58
- Berkeley, CA, $414,030.42
- Pasadena, CA, $409,926.82
- Huntington Beach, CA, $408,203.85
- Costa Mesa, CA, $397,285.77
- Glendale, CA, $392,730.01
- Bellevue, WA, $391,042,91
- Los Angeles, CA, $389,060.67
* Based on all Credit Karma members who pulled their credit profile data from July 2014 through June 2015 and live in a city with a population greater than 100,000.