Mortgage rates are low due to the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy but 30-year fixed-rates had started to rise again, according to the free-credit-score website WalletHub study, which recently released its 2020 Home Overleverage Report.
To determine where homeowners have the most unsustainable mortgage debts, WalletHub compared the median mortgage debt to the median income and median home value in more than 2,500 U.S. cities, according to the report.
The most overleveraged cities were Willis, Texas; Bell Gardens, Calif.; Ewa Beach, Hawaii; Dumfries, Va.; Blaklick Estates, Ohio; McKees Rocks, Pa.; York, Pa.; Canton, Miss..; Kahului, Hawaii, Santa Maria, Calif.;Watsonville, Calif.; Beverly Hills, Calif.; Imperial Beach, Calif.; Upper Marlboro, Md.; Cumming, Ga.; Bell, Calif.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Richmond, Texas; and Holister, Calif.
The least overleveraged cities the report cites are Dublin/Powell, Ohio; Cheektowaga, N.Y.; Chagrin Falls, Ohio; Hingham, Mass.; Plymouth, Mich.; Greenwood, Miss.; Gary, Ind.; St. Albans, W.Va.; Gahanna, Ohio; Princeton, N.J.; Chevy Chase, Md.; Yorktown, Va.; West Mifflin, Pa.; Pascagoula, Miss.; Scarsdale, N.Y.; Naples, Fla.; Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; Homosassa, Fla.; Decatur, Ga.; and Bronxville, N.Y.
Key stats include:
- West Mifflin, Pa., has the lowest mortgage debt-to-income ratio, 140 percent, which is 7.4 times lower than in Bell Gardens, Calif., the city with the highest at 1,041 percent.
- Bronxville, N.Y., has the lowest mortgage debt-to-house value ratio, 19 percent, which is 9.6 times lower than in McKees Rocks, Pa., and the city with the highest at 182 percent.
- East St. Louis, Ill., has the lowest median mortgage debt, $42,809, which is 18.7 times lower than in Beverly Hills, Calif., the city with the highest at $802,098.
- Scarsdale, N.Y., has the highest median income, $211,139, which is 9.6 times higher than in Bastrop, La., the city with the lowest at $22,021.