Want to Own a Home and You Make $30K? Consider Cleveland

(Credit: Ron Antonelli/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

How much do you need to earn to buy a modest home in a major metro area in the U.S.?

If you're making around $30,000 a year, Cleveland might be the city for you.

Mortgage website HSH.com recently updated its study from February from 25 metropolitan areas to 27, determining the minimum salary you needed to become a homeowner.

HSH.com looked at its own first-quarter 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages and first-quarter median home prices from the National Association of Realtors. In its model, HSH.com also used a 20 percent down-payment.

Along with adding Detroit and Pittsburgh to the analysis, HSH.com also included data on insurance and taxes to give consumers an even better idea of how much salary they need.

Cleveland came out on top as the area with the cheapest homes. San Francisco rounded out the list, requiring a potential homeowner to make more than $130,000 a year.

See below to find out how your city fared:

  1. Cleveland: $29,788.67
  2. Pittsburgh: $30,177.78
  3. St. Louis: $31,275.49
  4. Cincinnati: $31,850.18
  5. Detroit: $32,250.30
  6. Atlanta: $34,183.44
  7. Tampa: $36,437.56
  8. Phoenix: $41,308.74
  9. Orlando: $43,243.95
  10. San Antonio: $44,506.00
  11. Minneapolis: $45,732.39
  12. Dallas: $47,708.77
  13. Houston: $49,036.60
  14. Philadelphia: $50,546.25
  15. Chicago: $52,866.88
  16. Baltimore: $53,078.51
  17. Sacramento: $58,113.87
  18. Miami: $59,734.23
  19. Denver: $59,892.46
  20. Portland, Ore.: $60,307.71
  21. Seattle: $73,851.06
  22. Washington, D.C.: $78,503.56
  23. Boston: $79,820.01
  24. Los Angeles: $85,964.88
  25. New York City: $89,788.69
  26. San Diego: $98,534.22
  27. San Francisco: $137,129.55