California’s High Housing Costs Have Created a Million “House Rich” Millionaires (2024)

FAQs

Are you a millionaire if you buy a million dollar house? ›

Someone is considered a millionaire when their net worth, or their assets minus their liabilities, totals $1 million or more.

The income required to make the payments each month will vary based on your down payment, interest rate, and other factors, but you're still likely to need an annual salary that's close to $200,000.

While $840,000 is the bare minimum to afford a $5 million home, most experts recommend having a pretax income closer to $1.2 - $1.5 million to be on the safe side. Owning a five-million-dollar home is a dream for many people.

Housing in California is expensive due to high demand and low supply. With strong demand from millennials and retirees drawn to California's warm climate, the limited supply of housing has driven up property values.

If you retire at age 65 and expect to live to the average life expectancy of 79 years, your three million would need to last for about 14 years. However, if you retire at 55 and expect to live to the average life expectancy, your nest egg would need to last for about 24 years.

Depending on your goals and plans, $3 million can be enough to cover early retirement at 40. However, certain factors will affect whether $3 million is enough. For example, your retirement needs and life expectancy play a big role. Here's how to invest it to cover healthcare, housing and lifestyle.

As a general rule, you'll need an annual household income of at least $225,384 in order to afford a million-dollar home. However, specific salary requirements depend on factors like your interest rate and the size of your down payment.

To be able to afford a $2 million house, you'll need to earn over $450,000 a year. You'll also need to have enough money to cover the down payment and closing costs for the home.

What annual salary do you need to afford a million-dollar house? Experts suggest you might need an annual income between $100,000 to $225,000, depending on your financial profile, in order to afford a $1 million home.

To afford a $3 million home, you should make at least $700,000 per year to live comfortably.

What salary do you need to buy a 10 million dollar house? ›

With a 20% down payment, you'll need to make a minimum of $1.6 million per year to afford a $10 million home. Jumbo loans tend to have stricter underwriting standards than conforming loans, so you'll need to prove you have the income to afford the payments.

To afford a 10 million dollar home, how much yearly income is required? TLDR - you need to have $2 million in cash for the down payment, and you'd need to be making at least $1.8 million per year in order to service the debt and other associated costs, while still living comfortably.

Despite headlines about huge numbers of Californians fleeing to other states in search of a cheaper life, home prices remain stubbornly high in California. In San Francisco, for example, the average home price is over $1.2 million, according to Zillow. That's close to four times the average U.S. home value.

Increasingly high costs of living, housing, and transportation coupled with an increase in crime, pollution, and congestion has caused many people to relocate to more affordable cities and states. Businesses have also been on the move out of California.

Yes, for some people, $2 million should be more than enough to retire. For others, $2 million may not even scratch the surface. The answer depends on your personal situation and there are lot of challenges you'll face. As of 2023, it seems the number of obstacles to a successful retirement continues to grow.

This means that if you make $100,000 shortly before retirement, you can start to plan using the ballpark expectation that you'll need about $75,000 a year to live on in retirement. You'll likely need less income in retirement than during your working years because: Most people spend less in retirement.

The basic idea is that if you retire with $500,000 in assets, you should be able to withdraw $20,000 per year for 30 years (or longer). However, this rule has been debunked in recent years, and the appropriate withdrawal rate is roughly 2.8%.

A recent analysis determined that a $1 million retirement nest egg may only last about 20 years depending on what state you live in. Based on this, if you retire at age 65 and live until you turn 84, $1 million will probably be enough retirement savings for you.

The Bottom Line

If you've saved $5 million, you should be able to retire at 45 without any worries as long as you've made a solid plan. With some wise investments and careful budget planning, you can have a long and happy retirement without any worries about running out of cash.

Is $1,000,000 enough to retire at 55? ›

Can I retire at 55 with $1 million? Yes, you can retire at 55 with one million dollars. You will receive a guaranteed annual income of $56,250 immediately and for the rest of your life.

The overwhelming majority of millionaires own real estate, making it by far the most popular alternative asset class. That includes their own home, second homes, investment properties, and fractional ownership of investment properties through partners or programs like Arrived Homes and Roofstock One.

With rapid price appreciation between 2020 and 2022, we estimate that approximately 1.2 million California households are now home-equity millionaires. Who are these house-rich Californians? Most have paid off their mortgages. In 2020, 58% of the state's equity millionaires owned their homes free and clear.

McMansion is a slang term that describes a large, often opulent or ostentatious, mass-produced house. The name carries a somewhat critical connotation because McMansions lack architectural uniqueness, class, or style.

Based on the current average for a down payment, and the current U.S. average interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage you would need to be earning $126,479 per year before taxes to be able to afford a $650,000 home.

A 30-year, $1,000,000 mortgage with a 4% interest rate costs about $4,774 per month — and you could end up paying over $700,000 in interest over the life of the loan.

A $900,000 home, with a 5% interest rate for 30 years and $45,000 (5%) down requires an annual income of $218,403. This estimate is for an individual without other expenses, and your situation may differ.

There are a ton of variables, and these are just loose guidelines. That said, if you make $200,000 a year, it means you can likely afford a home between $400,000 and $500,000.

To afford a $500,000 home, a person would typically need to make about $140,000 a year, said Realtor.com economic data analyst Hannah Jones. The principal and interest payments would total $2,791 per month, and with taxes and insurance, that number comes up to $3,508.

For a $500,000 home, a 20% down payment would be $100,000. At a 5.5% rate, the monthly payment for this would be $2,940 (this includes taxes and insurance - scroll down to see how much local taxes can impact your monthly payment and may alter this number for you).

What should your net worth be to buy a million dollar home? ›

To afford a 1 million dollar home, you need a minimum annual income of $200,000 to $225,000. You'll also need to have enough money saved for the down payment and closing costs, which can add up to over 20% of the purchase price. There are a variety of reasons someone might want a million-dollar home in the first place.

To become a real estate millionaire, you may have to own at least ten properties. If this is your goal, you need to accumulate rental properties with a total value of at least a million.

Yes, of course it is. Here, in the United States, most software engineers make over $100k/year. In some companies, making over $100K is the base salary BEFORE bonuses, stock options and other forms of additional compensation are added.

To qualify for a $1 million mortgage, Americans typically have to make a down payment of at least 20% of the home's price.

When you invest in real estate, you could achieve a million-dollar or greater net worth simply because the properties you own and manage have gone up in value over the years. Few of us have the cash on hand to buy the property outright. This is why many put a down payment on a property before repairing it.

Billionaire mogul Byron Allen, CEO of Entertainment Studios and perhaps best known for buying The Weather Channel, purchased a Malibu mansion for $100 million, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Billionaire media mogul Byron Allen has paid $100 million for a Malibu estate formerly owned by self-storage billionaire Tammy Hughes Gustavson, according to a person familiar with the situation.

California continued to lose residents in 2022, but the state's population decline is slowing as immigration ramps up again following the COVID-19 pandemic. The state is currently home to about 38.9 million people, down more than 138,400 year-over-year, according to the California Department of Finance.

California is so expensive because of its strong economy, high-income tax rates, and limited housing supply which make it difficult for residents to save money. Moreover, the prices of basic necessities such as food, gasoline, and transportation are comparatively steep in California as compared to most other US states.

When did California become so expensive? ›

Between 1970 and 1980, California home prices went from 30 percent above U.S. levels to more than 80 percent higher. This trend has continued. Today, an average California home costs $440,000, about two–and–a–half times the average national home price ($180,000).

The most common destinations for California migrants were Texas, Arizona, and Nevada. Texas had the most California transplants from 2020 to 2021: 105,000. Arizona (with 63,000 California transplants) and Nevada (55,000) were next highest.

Natural environment: You'd like to live where pollution is low and nature is well-tended. US News & World Report has graded the states on their environmental qualities. The best states were Hawaii, New York and Massachusetts.

What States Are Americans Moving To? The most popular state people moved to in 2022 was Florida, while the state people most often moved from was California. Texas was the second-most popular state for Americans on the move, while North Carolina came in third.

For starters, the cost of living is drastically cheaper in Florida. California ranks as the second most expensive place to live in the country so those who move from California will find real estate prices much more affordable in Florida. Not only is Florida more affordable, but there are more jobs to be had.

1. Hawaii. Hawaii is truly a paradise, but it is also the most expensive state in America to live in. The cost of living in Hawaii overall is 86% higher than the national average, and the cost of housing in Hawaii is a jaw-dropping 207% above the national average.

Experts suggest you might need an annual income between $100,000 to $225,000, depending on your financial profile, in order to afford a $1 million home. Your debt-to-income ratio (DTI), credit score, down payment and interest rate all factor into what you can afford.

Someone who has $1 million in liquid assets, for instance, is usually considered to be a high net worth (HNW) individual. You might need $5 million to $10 million to qualify as having a very high net worth while it may take $30 million or more to be considered ultra-high net worth.

“90% of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.” This famous quote from Andrew Carnegie, one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs of all time, is just as relevant today as it was more than a century ago.

How much annual income to afford $3 million dollar home? ›

To afford a $3 million home, you should make at least $700,000 per year to live comfortably.

Assuming you are financing the purchase and put at least 20% down, most lenders will require you to have a salary of at least $450,000 per year to qualify for a $2 million home loan. This could be household income if both you and your spouse are on the loan.

To be financially comfortable in Southern California, you'd need a net worth of $1.3 million. Here's what it takes to be considered wealthy in 2022 by city ans ranked by net worth thresholds: San Francisco: $5.1 million. Southern California (includes Los Angeles and San Diego): $3.9 million.

Key points. There are 5.3 million millionaires and 770 billionaires living in the United States. Millionaires make up about 2% of the U.S. adult population. While an ultra-high net worth will be out of reach for most, you can amass $1 million by managing money well and investing regularly.

A net-worth millionaire is someone who has a net worth of at least $1,000,000. Net worth is a fancy way to say 'what you own minus what you owe. ' If that amount ends up being $1,000,000+, you're a net-worth millionaire."

Most have paid off their mortgages. In 2020, 58% of the state's equity millionaires owned their homes free and clear. Statewide, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of Californians who have paid off their mortgages, from 1.6 million households in 2000 to 2.4 million in 2020.

Federal tax benefits

Because of the many tax benefits, real estate investors often end up paying less taxes overall even as they are bringing in more income. This is why many millionaires invest in real estate. Not only does it make you money, but it allows you to keep a lot more of the money you make.

Dave Ramsey, personal finance expert and founder of Ramsey Solutions, says this myth of primarily inherited riches is “flat wrong.” When Ramsey's National Study of Millionaires asked where the riches came from, they found that a whopping 79% didn't receive any inheritance from parents or other family members.

The world's 100 richest individuals earned their first $1 million at age 37, on average. The average millionaire is 57 years old.