Is the cost of living in Cleveland and suburbs getting to high? (for sale)

[complexsimplicity]

I currently live in an apartment in Shaker Hts. and was considering purchasing a nice loft or a home, but I am kind of nervous. I was driving through my neighborhood and noticed on each street there are at least 2-3 for sale signs posted. Maybe it is the high taxes in this city, but I noticed that there a lot of forclosures throughout Cleveland as well. I saw a thread that Cleveland is the 10th in the nation for forclosures! I looked into the new lofts on Lee RD and Van Aken and the price was around $250,000! That is way to high considering the area it is surrounded by, mainly Chagrin and the riff raff in that area.

My question is, do you think the cost of living in Cuyahoga county is too high, making it hard for the middle class to live comfortably?
In my opinion, I believe all jobs should give cost of living raises like is use to get when I worked at Progressive. (Why did I leave that job?!)

[BelieveInCleve]

With all the people leaving Cuyahoga county im surpised the housing costs havent gone way down especially around Cleveland. I think some of the housing costs in some of the suburbs is way too high, nothing like how overpriced they are in California, but still too high. Maybe people should lower the prices and then there wont be so many empty houses and foreclosures due to people not being able to afford their house.

[bubbagirl]

There are some backwards things going on Cuyahoga Co and other areas around Cleveland.

First, the foreclosure rate is very high mostly because of the adjustable rate and less than optimum financing. This allowed people who normally couldn't get a mortgage to get a loan and it also allowed people "afford" a mortgage that they couldn't actually afford. Once those interest rates started rising, people who were aleady barely able to afford could no longer afford.

Another problem throughout the area is the "variety" of McMansions that have popped up everywhere. Oversized, overpriced houses, usually built cutting corners and as cheaply as possible. Having these houses built up near older houses supposedly raises the property value... you can see entire neighborhoods bull dozed and Mcmasions replacing what used to be there.

Personally, I am suprised that high dollars price tags are still attached to many of the housing options around Cuyahoga Co. Nothing is selling and the bottom will fall out, equilizing the pricing. But, it won't be happening in the next year. If I were you... I'd wait before investing. Wait to see what the market does over the next 1-5 years.