Chief
07-17-2007, 09:00 AM
http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/103226/Most-Affordable-Towns
Looking for an affordable place to own a home? Think Garfield Heights, Ohio, or Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, or any number of the townships and communities clustered predominantly in America's industrial heartland. Nine of the 25 in the list can be found in Ohio alone.
To generate the list, we divided median family income by median home prices. The towns are ranked in order of their home-to-income ratio. And average prices are less than half the cost of hot coastal markets, such as Boston, San Francisco and Seattle.
Northbrook, Ohio
Median family income: $59,902
Median home price (2006): $83,760
This sleepy Cincinnati suburb has more than 11,000 people and some of the best housing buys in a region known for affordable places to live. Residents say they like the low-key living there, aided by a high percentage of home ownership. Northbrook is one of many Ohio communities benefiting from an influx of out-of-state buyers looking for investment properties. Prices, however, remain reasonable and the community has managed to maintain its character.
Blacklick Estates, Ohio
Median family income: $59,172
Median home price (2006): $83,480
A short drive from the flourishing state capital of Columbus, Blacklick Estates provides a pastoral setting with good schools nearby and a number of activities within walking distance.
West Mifflin, Pennsylvania
Median family income: $52,771
Median home price (2006): $81,113
Just a few miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh, West Mifflin provides easy access to the greater metropolitan area with housing prices that are anything but big-city. Late-model split-levels go for $189,000, while wide open spaces can be purchased for a reasonable $50,000 an acre.
**SCHNIPP**
Need I continue?? Do we see a trend here?? You will notice that none of those towns has anywhere near the median home price, and therefore nowhere near the tax burden either, that we have out here. My relatively small lot here in Cascade Park is assessed at $86,000 all by itself....
Certainly those towns do not have the same population as we do here in Vancouver, but consider that those towns are small suburbs of major cities, and compre those against an area like Cascade park by itself, and the numbers will be more meaningful, and the disparity a lot more clear.
Stout Hearts...
Looking for an affordable place to own a home? Think Garfield Heights, Ohio, or Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, or any number of the townships and communities clustered predominantly in America's industrial heartland. Nine of the 25 in the list can be found in Ohio alone.
To generate the list, we divided median family income by median home prices. The towns are ranked in order of their home-to-income ratio. And average prices are less than half the cost of hot coastal markets, such as Boston, San Francisco and Seattle.
Northbrook, Ohio
Median family income: $59,902
Median home price (2006): $83,760
This sleepy Cincinnati suburb has more than 11,000 people and some of the best housing buys in a region known for affordable places to live. Residents say they like the low-key living there, aided by a high percentage of home ownership. Northbrook is one of many Ohio communities benefiting from an influx of out-of-state buyers looking for investment properties. Prices, however, remain reasonable and the community has managed to maintain its character.
Blacklick Estates, Ohio
Median family income: $59,172
Median home price (2006): $83,480
A short drive from the flourishing state capital of Columbus, Blacklick Estates provides a pastoral setting with good schools nearby and a number of activities within walking distance.
West Mifflin, Pennsylvania
Median family income: $52,771
Median home price (2006): $81,113
Just a few miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh, West Mifflin provides easy access to the greater metropolitan area with housing prices that are anything but big-city. Late-model split-levels go for $189,000, while wide open spaces can be purchased for a reasonable $50,000 an acre.
**SCHNIPP**
Need I continue?? Do we see a trend here?? You will notice that none of those towns has anywhere near the median home price, and therefore nowhere near the tax burden either, that we have out here. My relatively small lot here in Cascade Park is assessed at $86,000 all by itself....
Certainly those towns do not have the same population as we do here in Vancouver, but consider that those towns are small suburbs of major cities, and compre those against an area like Cascade park by itself, and the numbers will be more meaningful, and the disparity a lot more clear.
Stout Hearts...