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What if you looked at it another way: Perhaps they’re priced appropriately?
There are only a handful of extremely expensive cities in the country: New York, San Francisco, Boston, DC, and Honolulu. Part of the expense is about geography and very limited land or highly restrictive zoning. Some are hubs of unusually high-paying industries (tech or finance) that drive up prices. And some just have an “it” factor that attracts the affluent—or prompts ordinary people to make extraordinary sacrifices to live there.
First off neither Chicago nor Philly are inexpensive on the national sense. What both have is high priced areas and numerous lower priced areas beinging the medians and means down moreso than some of the other cities. While cheaper than some others I am not sure many would find a nice property in Lincoln Park or Rittenhouse Sq as cheap. There is a lot of pretty inexpensive housing in places like North Philly and the Southside of Chicago but these are not properties in high demand for middle income or above in general.
In some ways Philly (Chicago) is cheaper in a relative sense. Maybe right priced as some have said. For example the average income in Society Hill is basically identical to Boston's back bay, yet is probably only 75 cents on the dolar for comparable housing
New York is one of the financial capitals of the world. Supply is scarce, demand comes not just from New Yorkers but people from all over the globe, some earning money in currency that is a lot stronger than ours, and everyone is competing for a relatively small amount of "good" inventory. $100,000 is play money in New York to the bankers and hedge funders and law partners and media owners who call the city home.
The same is true in DC (with the federal government and all the consultants and lobbyists who feed off of it), Silicon Valley/SF (tech) and LA (entertainment). It's also true internationally. The financial powerhouses of London and Tokyo are some of the most expensive in the world. And their weather is nothing to write home about.
Without those industries propping up a city, real estate prices normalize. What's the major industry in Philadelphia?
New York is one of the financial capitals of the world. Supply is scarce, demand comes not just from New Yorkers but people from all over the globe, some earning money in currency that is a lot stronger than ours, and everyone is competing for a relatively small amount of "good" inventory. $100,000 is play money in New York to the bankers and hedge funders and law partners and media owners who call the city home.
The same is true in DC (with the federal government and all the consultants and lobbyists who feed off of it), Silicon Valley/SF (tech) and LA (entertainment). It's also true internationally. The financial powerhouses of London and Tokyo are some of the most expensive in the world. And their weather is nothing to write home about.
Without those industries propping up a city, real estate prices normalize. What's the major industry in Philadelphia?
philly and chicago both have diversified economies with no one industry dominating, maybe that has someth to do with it, and nobody is talkin about nyc, its nyc and incomparable to anyth else
important to note tho that higher wages in places like nyc and dc don't offset the higher COL, unless ur a real big shot, and often wages are not higher at all, esp in nyc
1. Weather has nothing to do with it. After all, Philly is between two highly expensive, desirable cities (DC and NYC), and has an intermediate climate.
2. I think jobs play a role. I know that in the case of Philly it has far less jobs within the city limits than residents - in part due to a high commuter tax. This means fewer people even have the option to relocate due to applying for a job long distance, and it's not a great place to move with no job lined up. I don't know as much about Chicago - I think it has a better job market, but it's not the same as NYC or DC of course.
3. Chicago and Philadelphia are still around half ghetto or near-ghetto, which brings down average prices. Besides DC, the proportion of the most expensive major cities which is bad neighborhoods is now significantly less than half.
Are people really suggesting that weather is the one of the primary factors? Give me a break!
In Chicago there is just plenty of room to build on, primarily due the fall of manufacturing what took a significant chunk out of Chicago's footprint and also let's not forget that Chicago had nearly 1 million people more back about 50 years ago. So that has left certain areas, more so the southside with lots of open lots.
I will say though Chicago is not cheap. It definitely falls in the top 10 most expensive major cities in the country.
The northside of Chicago is actually expensive. It's pretty built up and it's not cheap to live there. The southside is where it's really cheap. Chicago is still going a lot of changes. It's becoming more expensive and it's population is starting to become wealthier while the poor neighborhoods are bleeding out people.
I don't think that's the determinative factor. I also really don't think Chicago is much cheaper that Miami. Then again I don't think Miami's weather is all that much better than Chicago's. And weather also doesn't really explain DC or Boston. They are more expensive than Chicago but I don't see how they offer more than Chicago or have such better weather to explain the COL difference.
Weather IS a factor, but there are others too. Location for example. NYC is close to a lot of other attractions like most expensive cities on the coasts. Chicago is a bit isolated. Also, I do not think Chicago has as many restrictions on development as many coastal cities, which can drive up demand.
Restrictions limit supply more than they drive up demand. By implementing development standards that make it difficult to build somewhere, that doesn't necessarily cause more builders to want to develop sites, but it does limit the new supply added to the market, and as Demand increase (by other means) it puts a strain on prices that have a limited supply to work with and have to feed a growing demand base.
People are talking about the weather in Philly and how it's bad.... NEWSFLASH: It aint any worse that NYC-- and certainly isn't worse than Chicago.
Chicago has BRUTAL winters. Philly, not so much. Yes Philly has their cold and some snow, but it's really nothing when compared to Chicago's frigid temps and lake affect snow.
DC, Philly and even NYC all have pretty much the same climate, with DC bing the warmest of the 3, being that it's the furthest south, but still-- generally the same weather up and down that DC through NYC corridor.... I feel as if Boston is very much cooler and colder than Philly.
Anyway, Philly is expensive in certain neighborhoods, however I imagine it remains somewhat affordable due to the fact that Philly is not a hot place to move to like NYC....like DC....like LA and San Fran-- those cities are traditionally expensive andlots of ppl are clamoring to move there. Philly isn't that. Neither is Chicago
It RARELY gets "frigid" in Chicago temp-wise and there is rarely lake-effect snow. Lake Effect snow affects areas downwind, not upwind. So unless a storm system is spinning moisture backwards (from East to West) over the lake it doesn't usually get lake-effect snow.
Are people really suggesting that weather is the one of the primary factors? Give me a break!
In Chicago there is just plenty of room to build on, primarily due the fall of manufacturing what took a significant chunk out of Chicago's footprint and also let's not forget that Chicago had nearly 1 million people more back about 50 years ago. So that has left certain areas, more so the southside with lots of open lots.
I will say though Chicago is not cheap. It definitely falls in the top 10 most expensive major cities in the country.
The northside of Chicago is actually expensive. It's pretty built up and it's not cheap to live there. The southside is where it's really cheap. Chicago is still going a lot of changes. It's becoming more expensive and it's population is starting to become wealthier while the poor neighborhoods are bleeding out people.
Chicago in a way is a tale of two cities.
no it def doesnt, not even remotely, people who say that must be from the midwest
cities more expensive than chi-anchorage, baltimore, dc, nyc, boston, la, seattle, bay area, miami, honolulu
philly even cheaper than chi tho
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