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America's Most Affordable Cities 2014
Topic Started: Mar 14 2014, 10:40 PM (371 Views)
Berton
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America's Most Affordable Cities 2014


By Erin Carlyle, Forbes

Perhaps surprising to some, the state of New York is home not only the nation's most overpriced city (New York City ties with Honolulu for the dubious honor), but also its most affordable: Buffalo. With a median family income of $63,500 and a median home sales price of $100,000, home ownership is attainable for 88.5% of the local population. Coupled with daily expenses that are about 4% below the national median, Buffalo claims the No. 1 spot on our list.

Seven Southern cities are on the list, too. But the Midwest dominates when it comes to affordability.

Three hotbeds of affordability are situated in the Northeast. Surprisingly, none of America’s Most Affordable Cities are in the nation’s West.

Behind the numbers

To find America's Most Affordable Cities, we started with the 100 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and Metropolitan Divisions (MDs), all with populations of 600,000 or more. MSAs and MDs are cities and their surrounding suburbs as defined by the Office of Management and Budget.

First we looked at housing affordability, using the Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) from the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo. The quarterly index weighs median prices for homes sold against median income levels to determine the percentage of homes that are affordable to residents making the median income (the national median is $64,400). Due to a lack of sufficient data, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, La., as well as Columbia, S.C.; Gary and Indianapolis, Ind.; Kansas City, Mo.; Little Rock, Ark.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Omaha, Neb. had to be excluded from our results.

Next we considered the cost-of-living index developed by Sperling’s Best Places, factoring in the cost of food, utilities, gas, transportation, medical expenses, and a host of other daily expenses for each area. Cities with a cost-of-living rank above 100 have higher prices for these day-to-day goods than the national average.

Finally, we weighted these factors, in line with the methodology the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses for the weightings of its Consumer Price Index (where housing is weighted just under 32%). Because housing is such an important expense to most people, we tipped the scales a bit higher.....

LINK

OKC and Tulsa are both on the list.

Click on the link to see the list.


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Pat
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A one bedroom 650 sq ft. condo in Redmond (kid picked up as a rental), sold for $94,000. The condo is in a major re-model and came out of bankruptcy. This unit originally sold for $180K. Housing is higher out west than what is being shown in the article.

Check out Newport Beach, Ca., there are homes for rent that set you back close to $50K per month. That's on the high side, you can get what is shown in the photos here for about $6,000 per month to $10,000. The smaller one's in the photo for about $3,000. Depends how close to the water and so forth.

I think affordability is the key, what can the medium income of the area afford. And how desirable is the location. One winter in Buffalo would be enough for most people to run screaming to the south.
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tomdrobin
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There will always be hot spots that only the wealthy can afford.

Here in Michigan the housing market is still pretty depressed. Primarily because there is not enough demand. Those low wage jobs just don't pay enough for people to be able to afford anything more than a run down mobile home.
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Pat
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In the colder climates I don't know how the realtors make it in the winter. Do they tell a prospective buyer that underneath that three feet of snow is a nice yard, the roof has red tile but you will have to take my word on it. "But I do have a heat bill you can see, granted, it is not always $1500 a month, only the nine months of winter." lol.
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Berton
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Keep in mind that the cost of housing was not the only factor.

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tomdrobin
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I see houses locally that have been on the market for awhile. You drive by and the drive isn't even plowed and the realtors sign is buried under the snow. Not seeing much traffic. Although they usually have pics taken in summer at the realtors website. Actually when we looked at this house 35 years ago, I can recall parking at the road and walking through a couple feet of snow. I have a cousin who lives down the road, and they are snowbirding in MS this winter. His drive has about 3 feet of snow. I've been thinking of posting a pic of it on facebook for him and his dw to see, telling they need to get home and take care of it. :tongue:
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Pat
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/11/realtors-have-sex-in-mans-home_n_4943393.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Check this out Tom, or anyone else who wants a laugh. A real estate tale you would never consider. :smile: For those that wonder why their home is still on the market, you now might know why.
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Sea Dog
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At eleven hundred a month,
this condo is a the upper end rentwise
in my town.

http://norfolk.kijiji.ca/c-real-estate-apartments-condos-2-bedroom-Senior-Condo-St-Andrew-For-Rent-1100-Utilities-W0QQAdIdZ534628247
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tomdrobin
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Last year a house down the road that was in good condition went for a little over $100K. It was a 1800 sq ft ranch, attached garage, a couple of pole barns in good condition, 10 acres of land with pond, professionally built motocross track and lots of other extras.

At these prices, any thoughts of selling and moving to a warmer climate have vanished. It the winters like this are the new norm, I may close up and head south in the RV though.
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campingken
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A 2.5 acre parcel that is close to us was listed last month. It had a home that was built in the 1920's and is a tear down. It was listed for $110,000 and received 12 offers in the first 4 days. The sales price was $155,000. Basely the buyer bought a lot.
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