How long you have to work to afford a mortgage in Texas, Austin

A new study shows just how long Americans need to work to be able to afford a monthly mortgage payment.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — As the Austin housing market continues trending toward more sustainable levels, more people may be considering buying a home.

But as home prices may be cooling slightly, mortgage interest rates have jumped in recent months, even climbing above 6% this week for the first time since the 2008 housing crash.

A new study shows just how long Americans need to work to be able to afford a monthly mortgage payment.

Household review site HouseMethod.com calculated the number of work hours needed in each state, as well as the 50 largest metro areas in the country.

Americans on average must work 110 hours per month to afford their monthly mortgage, according to the study. But Austinites should expect to work longer.

Austin ranks as the seventh-most expensive city to afford a mortgage. To afford the median monthly mortgage payment of $3,424, people here would have to work an average of 152 hours. If the typical employee works eight hours a day, that means they'd have to work 19 full days to pay their mortgage.

That's more than any other city in Texas. San Antonio residents have to work on average 111 hours to afford a mortgage, while Dallas and Houston residents must work 109 and 98 hours, respectively.

The top four most expensive cities for mortgages are all in California: San Francisco, San Jose , San Diego and Los Angeles.

Residents of San Francisco must work an average of 249 hours to pay the median mortgage payment of $7,424.

Texans as a whole can expect to work an average of 113 hours to afford a mortgage, with a median hourly wage of $19, a median home value of $315,000 and a median monthly mortgage payment of $2,122.

That makes the Lone Star State fairly close to the middle of the pack when all states are ranked.

With a monthly mortgage of payment of more than $6,000, Hawaii ranks as the most expensive state to afford a mortgage. Hawaiians must work an average of 263 hours to afford the monthly payment.

West Virginia has the lowest median home values in the country, at $139,000. That means, despite a lower median hourly wage than Texas, West Virginians only have to work an average of 58 hours to be able to afford a mortgage.