Department of Numbers

Appleton, Wisconsin Home Affordability

The data below measures home affordability for the Appleton, Wisconsin 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 Appleton home affordability to other cities.

Appleton, Wisconsin Home Price-to-Income Ratios

The current price-to-income ratio for Appleton is 2.01 as determined by March 2013 Realtor median sales prices. The second chart shows a history of the ratio as an index calculated from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Appleton HPI series. Median household income data for Appleton 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

Appleton, Wisconsin Home Price-to-Income Ratio History

Date Realtor
(Dollar Ratio) 		FHFA
(Index Ratio)
March 2013 2.01 —
December 2012 1.96 101.4
September 2012 1.96 101.5
June 2012 1.96 100.6
March 2012 1.96 100.6
December 2011 1.99 100.6
September 2011 1.99 100.0
June 2011 1.99 99.0
March 2011 1.99 100.7

Appleton, Wisconsin Home Price-to-Rent Ratios

The current adjusted price-to-rent ratio for Appleton is 12.26 as determined by March 2013 Realtor median sales prices. This ratio is calculated using household size adjusted median contract rent for Appleton. The chart below shows an index of the rent ratio calculated from the metro FHFA HPI series and the Appleton 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

Appleton, Wisconsin Home Price-to-Rent Ratio History

Date Realtor
(Dollar Ratio) 		Realtor Adjusted
(Dollar Ratio) 		FHFA
(Index Ratio)
March 2013 17.05 12.26 —
December 2012 16.62 11.96 98.7
September 2012 16.62 11.96 98.8
June 2012 16.62 11.96 97.9
March 2012 16.62 11.96 97.8
December 2011 16.89 12.15 97.9
September 2011 16.89 12.15 97.3
June 2011 16.89 12.15 96.4
March 2011 16.89 12.15 98.0

Appleton, Wisconsin Home Rent-to-Mortgage Payment Ratio

The rent-to-mortgage payment ratio uses the adjusted rent for Appleton 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 Appleton was 1.5 in March 2013.

Rent-to-Mortgage Payment Dollar Ratio: Realtor

Appleton, Wisconsin Home Rent-to-Mortgage Payment Ratio History

Date Realtor Adjusted Rent
(Dollar Ratio)
March 2013 1.50
December 2012 1.58
September 2012 1.55
June 2012 1.52
March 2012 1.47
December 2011 1.44
September 2011 1.42
June 2011 1.35
March 2011 1.30

Appleton, Wisconsin Inferred Affordable Mortgage

The inferred affordable mortgage value is determined by taking the median household income for Appleton, Wisconsin 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

Appleton, Wisconsin Inferred Affordable Mortgage History

Date Inferred Mortgage
January 2013 $327,518
December 2012 $329,987
November 2012 $329,987
October 2012 $328,749
September 2012 $323,865
August 2012 $319,875
July 2012 $321,861
June 2012 $316,735
May 2012 $312,110
April 2012 $307,956
March 2012 $306,466
February 2012 $308,705
January 2012 $307,583

1. Specifically, home prices are from the non seasonally adjusted FHFA all-transactions quarterly series. Dollar ratios are calculated using NAR metro prices when available. Rent and income data are from the Census ACS and are carried forward into the following year prior to release of the new data. ↩

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