(NEXSTAR) — While a mortgage is widely considered a “ good debt ” to have, you, as a homeowner, may prefer having a faster route to paying off your home and qualifying for an eagle plaque .
Your ability to pay off your mortgage will depend on a variety of factors, including where you live.
Personal finance site SmartAsset recently analyzed home mortgage data and median incomes across the 40 largest metro areas in the U.S. to determine where it’s easiest to pay off a mortgage. To rank among the “easiest,” a city had to have a low income-to-housing-payment ratio.
Eagle plaques on houses have a meaning: Do you qualify for one?
Nowhere was that ratio lower than in Pittsburgh. With a median property value of $265,000, a median interest rate below 7%, and a median annual income among new homeowners of $101,000, residents in the Pennsylvania city have the lowest income-to-housing payment ratio of 16.36%.
Pittsburgh is the only city analyzed by SmartAsset with a ratio below 17%.