Personal finance website SmartAsset calculated how much you need to make to afford a home in Chicago. If you make a $48,384 salary, you can comfortably afford a down payment and mortgage installments, according to Chicago Tribune’s coverage of the analysis. 

Right now, Census Bureau data cited in the report puts median household income in Chicago at $53,006. With that in mind, it seems the average household in Chicago could afford to buy a home. (A different SmartAsset analysis found that you’d need a $96,600 salary to afford the annual rent of an average two-bedroom apartment in the city.)

How did SmartAsset arrive at that result? First, the website started out with a median home price of $243,900 in Chicago, taken from Census Bureau data. Next, SmartAsset plugged that number into its mortgage calculator (which, it should be noted, are not always 100 percent accurate. SmartAsset found that home payments including mortgage, property taxes, and homeowners insurance — a total of $1,452 per month — would be doable for an annual salary of $48,384. The analysis made a number of assumptions about the household making the $48,384 salary to reach that conclusion, including that the homebuyer is debt-free, made a 20 percent down payment, has a 30-year mortgage with a 4 percent interest rate, and would spend 0.5 percent on homeowners insurance. 

Debt and Homebuying 

The first assumption — a debt-free homebuyer — is interesting, particularly as millennials are coming into their own as a big group of homebuyers. More than half of millennials (63 percent) have $10,000 or more in student debt alone, according to a Padilla survey. More than a third (34 percent) of millennials have $30,000 or more in debt. Debt, among other things, means a lot of millennials are holding off on buying a home. A recent report from Apartment List says in Chicago, it should take an average of 11 years for a college graduate with student debt to save up for a 20 percent down payment.

Debt is not exclusive to the millennial generation. Americans had a collective $905 billion in credit card debt last year, according to Nerd Wallet. A survey conducted by GOBankingRates found 50 percent of Americans have credit card debt. Of course, that still leaves room for debt-free households that earn $48,384 per year. 

While $243,900 is the median home price in the city, finding that price all depends on the neighborhood. Chicago’s 10 priciest zip codes — think neighborhoods like the Loop, River North, and North Center — far exceed the median home price.

While an argument could be made for a different “magic number” when it comes to affording a home, it is clear that Chicago has remained more affordable than a number of other major U.S. cities. A recent study from Chicago Agent Magazine says it’s cheaper to buy than rent in Chicago.

“Compared to our coastal counterparts, Chicago has maintained affordability, so when buyers are looking, they’re better poised in Chicago than they would be in some of these other markets,” said Rebecca Thomson, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors, told the Chicago Tribune.