)<\/span><\/p>\nBut homeowners in 24 of the 50 largest US cities are in a much more favorable position, especially in booming West Coast tech markets like San Jose, CA.<\/p>\n
Home values in San Jose, San Francisco, CA and Seattle, WA are appreciating more than 3.5 faster per working hour than the cities\u2019 minimum wage earner\u2019s pay.<\/p>\n
In San Jose, the typical homeowner is earning $99.81 in equity in their home for every working hour while minimum wage earners in the city are paid $13.50 per hour. This means the typical San Jose home is earning over seven times the local minimum wage, says Zillow.<\/p>\n
And while the average hourly wage in the San Jose metro area is $43.71, that is still over two times less than the equity earned by the typical homeowner per working hour.<\/p>\n
San Francisco home values have been appreciating at a rate of more than four times the city’s minimum wage ($14). And, in Seattle, which has the highest minimum wage among all of the cities analyzed ($15), the typical homeowner is gaining $54.24 of equity per working hour.<\/p>\n
The phenomenon isn\u2019t just confined to the West Coast \u2014 home values in New York City are appreciating $42.17 per working hour while the local minimum wage is $13.00.<\/p>\n
“As home values continue to rise at a rapid clip, many homeowners have earned more in home equity over the past year than they would have by working a minimum wage job and in some areas, more than they’d have earned even if they had a job paying a six-figure annual salary,” says Zillow Senior Economist Aaron Terrazas in the digital release.<\/p>\n
But there is a difference between equity \u201cearnings\u201d and a paycheck. Unlike a regular paycheck, equity is available once a homeowner decides to sell and is still then subject to taxes and other expenses and fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill, particularly for homeowners that have already or are very close to paying off a mortgage, this supplemental ‘income’ (especially if allowed to accumulate over several years) can essentially serve as a kind of second job that pays directly to a homeowner’s bottom line, without nearly as much actual work involved in collecting it,\u201d Terrazas says.<\/p>\n
Click <\/span>here<\/span><\/a> to read the entire release.<\/span><\/p>\n
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