Hong Kong remained the least affordable city for the seventh consecutive year in 2016, with the ratio of median home price to the median annual household income reaching 18.1 times, according to a survey released Monday.
Among 406 metropolitan house markets analyzed, Sydney and Vancouver ranked second and third as "seriously unaffordable," by the metric, called "median multiple," according to the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey. The annual survey has been published by U.S.-based urban planning consultancy Demographia since 2005.
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Demographia ranks housing markets into four categories based on their price-to-income ratio, from "Affordable" (3.0 or less) to "Severely Unaffordable" (5.1 and Over)
Four cities in the U.S. were also listed in the top 10 least affordable housing markets: San Jose, Los Angeles and San Francisco in California and Honolulu in Hawaii.
| World's Least Affordable Housing Markets | |||
| City | Median Home Price | Median Annual Household Income | Median Multiple |
| Hong Kong | $5,422,000 | $300,000 | 18.1 |
| Sydney, Australia | $1,077,000 | $88,000 | 12.2 |
| Vancouver, Cananda | $830,100 | $70,500 | 11.8 |
| Auckland, New Zealand | $830,800 | $83,000 | 10 |
| San Jose, USA | $1,000,000 | $104,100 | 9.6 |
| Melbournes, Australia | $740,000 | $78,200 | 9.5 |
| Honolulu, USA | $745,000 | $78,900 | 9.4 |
| Los Angeles,USA | $593,900 | $63,900 | 9.3 |
| San Francisco, USA | $835,400 | $90,400 | 9.2 |
| Bournemouth & Dorset, UK | $265,000 | $29,900 | 8.9 |
| Source: Demographia |
This year’s survey has assessed markets from nine countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States, in the third quarter of 2016.
Hong Kong, ranked the least affordable city since 2010, was the only market selected from China, where top-tier cities have seen runaway price growth in the last decade.
Out of the 54 U.S. housing markets surveyed, 13 were ranked "seriously unaffordable." But at the national level, New Zealand was the most expensive country in which to buy a home.
Write to Fang Block at fang.block@dowjones.com