The National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo have put together an index of the most and least affordable metro areas. The index was created by calculating what percentage of a city’s residents making the median income can afford a house in that city.
Not too surprising — the Midwest offers a good value with Indianapolis topping the charts as the most affordable city in the US. New York, of course, is the least affordable, followed by San Francisco, which is no shock to anyone who has lived in, or even visited those two cities.
In order to qualify, each metro area had to have over 500,000 people.
Top 10 Least Affordable Cities
- New York City, NY
- San Francisco, CA
- Nassau/Suffolk Counties, NY
- Los Angeles, CA
- Miami, FL
- Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine, CA
- El Paso, TX
- Newark, NJ
- Honolulu, HI
- Seattle, WA
Top 10 Most Affordable Cities
- Indianapolis, IN
- Warren, Troy, Farmington Hills, MI
- Youngstown, Warren, Boardman, OH-PA
- Detroit, MI
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Syracuse, NY
- Dayton, OH
- Akron, OH
- Cleveland, OH
- Scranton, PA
For more data to play with, visit the NAHB.
(Photo:Donna Cazadd)
More From Consumerist
-
We Don’t Know How To Hold This KFC Streetwise Cheese Top Burger But We’d Like To Try
-
A Reminder: Clicking The First Link You See In Google Isn’t Always Such A Great Idea
-
It’s All The FCC’s Fault That Reader Can’t Watch His Local News Over Dish Network
-
Survey: Top Brands For Buzz In 2012 Were Subway, Amazon And… Cheerios?
-
Cable Industry Claims Next Generation Of Set-Top Boxes Won’t Use More Electricity Than Refrigerators
Syracuse, NY is a fantastic place to live! My husband makes an excellent salary and I personally know of NO ONE who has lost their job. I have a hard time considering anywhere else to live whenever my husband’s company asks him if he’s considered transferring to another location. Snowboarding, skating, sledding, snowmen AND comfortable 85 degree summers? Perfect! Our cost of living is dirt cheap as well… where else in this country can you support a family of 4 on $18K/year with NO assistance? We were young and he was entry level but we had everything we needed and didn’t ask the government for help… didn’t even think of it because we lived comfortably. Now making close to $80K, we feel so incredibly blessed to live here, especially in this economy.
Syracuse, NY was also listed as the second strongest real estate market in the nation by Forbes Magazine last month… GO ‘CUSE!
whoohoo!! We’re number 9!!
I had to smile at seeing Indianapolis at the top of the list. I get so tired of people bashing Indy because it’s not as glamorous as other big cities, but it’s still big (12th largest in the US, in fact), the cost of living is insanely slow, and it’s a good location in the country relative to other places – Chicago is only a few hours away and it’s within driving distance of the East coast.
I live in a small town now, due to a job change, but I’ve lived the first 23 years of my life in Indy and wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
MOTHER F’ER. F. F. F. I Just moved from Indy to Southern California 2 weeks ago. My cousin wonders why I complain about the prices of everything haha I guess it’s because I come from the cheapest city in America
Well as someone who lives in ohio fairly near two of those cities I can tell you why its so cheap to live there… because there are no jobs in ne/central ohio. We’ve lost timken, steel plants, hoover, and dozens of other mfg companies after nafta. 1/4 people I know are unemployed and i’m in my mid 30s.