Where Home Values Earn More Than Minimum Wage

A post on the Zillow Research digs into the amount of money homeowners are making in equity in large cities around the United States—finding that owning a home pays better on an hourly basis than many jobs in today's real estate market.

For instance, "[t]he typical U.S. homeowner is gaining $7.09 of equity in their home every working hour, $0.16 less than federal minimum wage." And, "[h]ome values in San Jose, Calif., San Francisco and Seattle have been appreciating more than 3.5 times faster per working hour than the cities’ minimum wage workers earn." In San Jose's case, more than 3.5 times faster is quite a bit more: "In San Jose, the typical homeowner is gaining $99.81 of equity in their home every hour they’re at the office. The city’s hourly minimum wage is $13.50."

In all, "owners of the median-valued home in 24 of the nation’s 50 largest cities earned more in equity per hour over the past year than their local minimum wage."

The analysis provides a new angle on equity, just days after a report by financial analytics company Black Knight found that homeowner equity reached a new record in 2017.