Owning a Home in an LGBTQ-Friendly Area Comes With a Hefty Price Premium

The cost of owning a home in an LGBTQ-friendly area in the U.S. comes with a hefty price premium of almost 50%, according to a report Wednesday from Redfin.

In a metropolitan area with state laws protecting LGBTQ people from housing discrimination, a home buyer needs to earn an annual income of $150,364 to afford a median priced home. That’s 46.8% more than the $102,435 buyers need to earn to afford a home in places without such protections, the online property portal said.

For the purposes of their report, a metro is considered to have protections if the state it’s located in prohibits housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity, Redfin explained. In the case of metro areas which span multiple states, Redfin considered the metro to have protections if at least one of the states it’s located in prohibits such discrimination.

“LGBTQ+ Americans face disproportionately large barriers to homeownership,” said Redfin senior economist Elijah de la Campa in the report. “On top of paying a premium to live somewhere that feels safe, many LGBTQ+ house hunters are earning less than the typical U.S. worker, and face discrimination while shopping for homes despite laws that prohibit it.”

The locales where individuals identifying as LGBTQ make up the largest share of the adult population are also those where housing is the least affordable, the report found.

In San Francisco, where 6.7% of the adult population identifies as LGBTQ—the highest share of any of the 54 metropolitan areas Redfin analyzed—only 5.1% of listings last year were affordable based on the median local income, one of the lowest shares in the country.

In Portland, Oregon, which had the second highest share of LGBTQ adults at 6%, only 6.7% of homes for sale were affordable; in Austin, Texas, where 5.9% of the adult population identifies as LGBTQ, 2.9% of listings were affordable.

And in Seattle and Los Angeles, where LGBTQ adults make up 5.2% and 5.1% of the population, 4.8% and 1.9% of homes for sale were affordable, respectively.

All but one of those top LGBTQ metros—Austin—has state-level protections, the report said.

If you’re looking to run into Cristiano Ronaldo, this six-bedroom villa near the coastal Portuguese town of Cascais, where the footballer lives, might up your chances.

The detached home, which came to market earlier this month asking €10 million (US$11.79 million), is within the gated Quinta Patino community in the town’s Estoril suburb, and comes with a private green-tiled pool, its own wine cellar and cinema, as well as a moody six-car show garage.

The eclectic house comes with a little French flair, including a grey mansard roof, as well as arched windows and a cream-stucco facade.

The interiors showcase a mix of modern floor-to-ceiling windows as well as more old-school elegance, including black-and-white checkered flooring, extensive crown moldings, a wood-paneled library and classic columns in between arched windows.

There are six bedrooms across 7,000 square feet, as well as a wine cellar, game room, a pergola and easy transitions between the indoors and outdoors.

“This residence was created for the way people truly want to live, with light-filled spaces that flow naturally from the kitchen and dining areas out to the garden and pool,” said listing agent Yared Hagos of Nest Seekers International via email.

Cascais is located in the Portuguese Riviera, roughly 30 minutes from Lisbon, and features sandy beaches, resorts and other visitor attractions.

“This property represents the best of both worlds, complete privacy in one of Portugal’s most prestigious gated communities, and yet you’re just minutes from the beach, the golf courses, and Lisbon’s cultural scene,” Hagos wrote.

Cascais is also one of many Portuguese cities to have benefited from the popularity of the country’s real estate among foreign investors, particularly its high-end homes , according to Hagos. Mansion Global could not determine the identity of the seller.

“With six consecutive months of rising buyer demand and price growth now exceeding 15% annually, prime areas like Lisbon, Cascais and the Algarve are seeing international buyers compete for an increasingly scarce supply of high-end homes,” he said.

The Portuguese Riviera also has seen an influx of celebrities in recent years, including most notably, soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo, Mansion Global previously reported.

Owning a Home in an LGBTQ-Friendly Area Comes With a Hefty Price Premium

The house, with a pool, a wine cellar and cinema, is in Estoril’s gated Quinto Patino community.