Limerick most affordable city in world to buy a house

Limerick is the most affordable place to buy a house out of hundreds of cities surveyed across the world.

It came joint top, with the median house price calculated to be just twice the median household income, according to a US survey.

Demographia publishes an annual list of housing affordability focusing on 378 cities in nine countries linking median household income to median house prices. A ratio of three and under is rated affordable, three to four moderately unaffordable and four and over is seriously unaffordable.

In Ireland, Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford were all surveyed. Overall, the country was rated affordable, with an overall income to house price ratio of three, the lowest of any of the geographical areas surveyed.

Limerick, most affordable city in the world to buy a house. According to the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey

— Paul McGrath (@Paul0McGrath) January 21, 2015

The survey found that Dublin is “seriously unaffordable” with a rating of 4.3.

Dublin’s median household income in Dublin was €57,600, with the median house price at €245,000

Overall, the most affordable major metropolitan area was Detroit, Michigan, with a rating of 2.1, while the most unaffordable is Hong Kong at 17.2.

Of the 378 in total, Limerick came out as the most affordable, along with Rockford, Illinois, Terre Haute, Indiana, Utica, New York and and Youngstown, Ohio, all in the US and all with a rating of two. Limerick’s median household income was €49,700, with a median house price of €100,000.

Waterford was rated 10th, with incomes at €46,600 and house prices at €103,000. Galway was given a three with income at €50,100 and house prices at €149,500, while Cork was classed as moderately unaffordable at 3.2, with income at €50,500 compared to median house prices at €160,000.