Hong Kong is the least affordable housing market for eighth time in a row

It’s the only Asian city on the top ten.

With a red-hot property market that not even the threat of a Fed rate hike can curb, it comes as no surprise that Hong Kong once again holds the title of having the least affordable housing market in the world, according to Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey.

The survey uses the median multiple, which is median house price divided by median household income, to evaluate the affordability of housing markets. 

Hong Kong is the only Asian city to make it to the top 10 as it tops the survey for the eighth time in a row following a median multiple of 19.4.

It is followed by Sydney at 12.9, Vancouver, Santa Cruz and San Jose. Melbourne, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Honolulu, San Francisco and Salinas-Monterey complete the top ten least affordable markets. 

On the other hand, the ten most affordable housing markets are all in the United States with Rochester as the most affordable. 

Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, Oklahoma and Pittsburgh are also in the list where housing prices are similarly within reach. 

The Demographia survey focuses on middle-income housing affordability and covers 293 metropolitan housing markets in nine countries. The data was gleaned from third quarter of 2017.