--- description: A millionaire says millennials' addiction to the trendy food is hurting their ability to save title: See How Much Avocado Toast You Would Have to Give Up to Buy a Home image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [real estate](/tag/real-estate/) ## real estate Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # How Much Avocado Toast Would You Have to Give Up to Buy a Home? by [David Johnson](/author/dave-johnson/) ## David Johnson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 15, 2017 9:45 PM CUT by [David Johnson](/author/dave-johnson/) ## David Johnson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 15, 2017 9:45 PM CUT An Australian [millionaire told millennials to stop buying avocado toast](https://time.com/personal-finance/article/first-time-home-buyer-grants-and-programs/ "undefined") if they want to afford a home. It got us wondering, how much avocado toast _would_ you have to give up to [purchase a home](https://time.com/personal-finance/article/how-to-buy-a-house/ "undefined")? The [median value of a U.S. home is $196,500](https://www.zillow.com/home-values/ "undefined"), which comes out to $39,300 for a 20 percent down payment (the amount people often put down before taking out a mortgage). If avocado toast costs around $8 a serving, you’d have to skip approximately 4,900 of those beloved toasts to afford that new home (and of course [avocado prices](http://time.com/money/4761367/avocado-prices-increase-mexico-import-tax-california/ "undefined") are volatile these days). For those on the coasts, prime avocado toast country, it gets even steeper. If you’re brunching in New York City or San Francisco, you could be looking at skipping roughly 10,000 and 21,000 avocado toast servings for a down payment, respectively. Want to have your toast and to eat it too? You could follow [millennials to popular suburbs](http://time.com/4748763/suburbs-millennials-moving-cities/ "undefined") for lower down payment costs, where avocado toast is likely already on the menu. To see how much it would cost where you live, use the calculator below, based on Zillow median home values for 575 metropolitan areas. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4779855/avocado-toast-home-calculator/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4779855/avocado-toast-home-calculator/"},"headline":"How Much Avocado Toast Would You Have to Give Up to Buy a Home?","datePublished":"2017-05-15T21:45:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:56:14.061Z","description":"A millionaire says millennials' addiction to the trendy food is hurting their ability to save","url":"https://time.com/4779855/avocado-toast-home-calculator/","keywords":["real estate"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"David Johnson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/real-estate/","name":"real estate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4779855/avocado-toast-home-calculator/","name":"How Much Avocado Toast Would You Have to Give Up to Buy a Home?"}}]}] ```