Report: Returning veterans can't afford homes

Returning veterans who train for new jobs still may not be able to afford housing in many U.S. cities.

And that goes for a lot of other people, too. A new study by the Center for Housing Policy looks at 74 occupations and whether the median incomes in those professions are enough to afford either a median-price home or the rent on a one- or two-bedroom apartment.

"In many housing markets, the jobs America's servicemen and women may find waiting for them after deployment do not pay enough to afford the costs of buying a home, and in some markets and for some occupations, veterans cannot afford the costs of renting a modest rental home," said Laura Williams, author of the latest edition of Paycheck to Paycheck, in a news release.

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The report looked at five occupations for which returning veterans are being trained: carpenter, dental assistant, electrician, firefighter and truck driver.

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Only one of those professions — electrician — pays enough for a worker to afford the mortgage, using nationwide statistics. Dental assistants can't afford the rent on a two-bedroom apartment.

Nationwide, the median salary in only 31% of the 74 professions studied was enough to buy a home at the national median price of $162,000, which is down from last year's median price of $165,000. A total of 54% earned enough to pay the rent on a two-bedroom apartment.

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In many large U.S. cities, only a minuscule percentage of the occupations have a high enough salary to afford a median-price home.

Here are the cities with the lowest percentage of workers in these occupations who can afford a median-price home:

• San Francisco: Median price of $549,000, 0%
• Barnstable, Mass: $275,000, 1%
• Bethesda, Md.: $305,000, 1%
• Boulder, Colo: $299,000, 1%
• Bridgeport, Conn.: $305,000, 1%
• Cambridge, Mass.: $310,000, 1%
• Honolulu: $409,000, 1%
• Los Angeles: $295,000, 1%
• Napa, Calif.: $300,000, 1%
• New York : $400,000, 1%

Other cities in which only 1% of workers can afford a median-price home are Ocean City, N.J.; Oxnard, Calif.; San Diego; San Jose, Calif.; San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Santa Ana, Calif.; Santa Cruz, Calif.; Santa Fe, N.M.; and Suffolk-Nassau, N.Y.

In only 89 of the 208 cities would workers in at least 50% of the professions be able to afford the mortgage on a median-price home. In 56 of the cities, fewer than least 50% could afford a two-bedroom apartment.

The cities in which the greatest percentage of professions had median incomes large enough to afford to buy a median-price home were:

• Springfield, Ohio: Median price of $66,000, 97%
• Youngstown, Ohio: $75,000, 93%
• South Bend, Ind.: $69,400, 93%
• Detroit: $78,000, 93%
• Wheeling, W.Va.: $73,000, 92%
• Saginaw, Mich.: $75,000, 92%
• Bay City, Mich.: $75,000, 92%
• Dayton, Ohio: $81,000, 89%
• Rockford, Ill.: $87,000, 88%
• Mansfield, Ohio: $80,000, 88%