Knoxville, Tennessee Home Affordability

The data below measures home affordability for the Knoxville, Tennessee metropolitan area using price-to-income and price-to-rent metrics.¹ The maximum affordable loan amount for the median household income is also calculated. You can also compare Knoxville home affordability to other cities.

Knoxville, Tennessee Home Price-to-Income Ratios

The current price-to-income ratio for Knoxville is 3.1 as determined by March 2012 Realtor median sales prices. The second chart shows a history of the ratio as an index calculated from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Knoxville HPI series. Median household income data for Knoxville is from the Census American Community Survey.

Price-to-Income Dollar Ratio: Realtor

Price-to-Income Index Ratio: FHFA

Note: Index set to 100 in Q1 of 2000

Knoxville, Tennessee Home Price-to-Income Ratio History

Date	Realtor (Dollar Ratio)	FHFA (Index Ratio)
March 2012	3.10	—
December 2011	3.17	123.4
September 2011	3.34	123.6
June 2011	3.31	122.1
March 2011	3.24	123.5
December 2010	3.27	125.6
September 2010	3.27	126.2
June 2010	3.27	124.4
March 2010	3.27	125.5

Knoxville, Tennessee Home Price-to-Rent Ratios

The current adjusted price-to-rent ratio for Knoxville is 18.26 as determined by March 2012 Realtor median sales prices. This ratio is calculated using household size adjusted median contract rent for Knoxville. The chart below shows an index of the rent ratio calculated from the metro FHFA HPI series and the Knoxville median contract rent data from the Census ACS.

Price-to-Rent Dollar Ratio: Realtor, Realtor Adjusted Rent

Price-to-Rent Index Ratio: FHFA

Note: Index set to 100 in Q1 of 2000

Knoxville, Tennessee Home Price-to-Rent Ratio History

Date	Realtor (Dollar Ratio)	Realtor Adjusted (Dollar Ratio)	FHFA (Index Ratio)
March 2012	20.41	18.26	—
December 2011	20.87	18.67	105.1
September 2011	22.02	19.70	105.3
June 2011	21.85	19.55	104.0
March 2011	21.36	19.11	105.2
December 2010	21.54	19.28	107.0
September 2010	21.54	19.28	107.4
June 2010	21.54	19.28	106.0
March 2010	21.54	19.28	106.9

Knoxville, Tennessee Home Rent-to-Mortgage Payment Ratio

The rent-to-mortgage payment ratio uses the adjusted rent for Knoxville against a 100% loan-to-value mortgage (30-year fixed) for the median price home using Realtor home sales statistics. It's a lot like a cap rate, but I find it more appealing in ratio form. A ratio of 1.0 means that annual rent is equivalent annual mortgage payments. Values less than 1.0 indicate rents are cheaper and values greater than 1.0 mean mortgage payments are cheaper. Beware, taxes are not considered here. The rent-to-mortgage payment ratio for Knoxville was 0.96 in March 2012.

Rent-to-Mortgage Payment Dollar Ratio: Realtor

Knoxville, Tennessee Home Rent-to-Mortgage Payment Ratio History

Date	Realtor Adjusted Rent (Dollar Ratio)
March 2012	0.96
December 2011	0.94
September 2011	0.87
June 2011	0.84
March 2011	0.83
December 2010	0.83
September 2010	0.87
June 2010	0.83
March 2010	0.81

Knoxville, Tennessee Inferred Affordable Mortgage

The inferred affordable mortgage value is determined by taking the median household income for Knoxville, Tennessee and calculating the mortgage 30% of that income could afford. Traditionally, 30% of income is the maximum amount a homeowner could use towards a home loan. Inferred affordable loan values are calculated from ACS median household income and average monthly mortgage rates.

Inferred Affordable Mortgage

Knoxville, Tennessee Inferred Affordable Mortgage History

Date	Inferred Mortgage
January 2012	$227,964
December 2011	$226,862
November 2011	$226,040
October 2011	$223,871
September 2011	$222,798
August 2011	$218,581
July 2011	$211,483
June 2011	$212,476
May 2011	$209,275
April 2011	$204,492
March 2011	$204,492
February 2011	$201,931
January 2011	$206,385