Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Why Houston more affordable than Dallas and Austin ? I see that Upstate New York have some cheapest real estate in the county places like Buffalo, Rochester metro areas for example.
Houston has always been more affordable than Austin and Dallas, primarily because it is built for a much more working class city. And, it has very lax building codes, a historical lack of standards enforcement, plus structural quality control and workmanship issues especially in unincorporated areas, which drive down construction costs. Use of low paid undocumented laborers in the building trades is also common, though certainly occurs in Austin and Dallas also. As a former Houston homeowner, Houston homes built since the mid 1960s have historically had a bad reputation for quality, not sure if it has improved (my last "new" home was built in the early 1980s, and I had a long list of structural and quality issues). Plus, there are many thousands of flood damaged homes, and flood-prone properties, that are constantly in the churn of sales that likely also have an effect on driving down average costs.
Buffalo and Rochester prices are driven by an excess of existing older homes as a result of shrinking population in the 1960s through early 2000s. New construction costs for low and mid-range homes are as high as, and sometimes higher, than comparable homes in many parts of the country, nearly double the median cost of existing homes in those cities. But without a growing population, the number of new homes (that drive average prices higher) is minuscule compared to fast growing cities.
Last edited by RocketSci; 06-18-2023 at 03:49 PM..
These type of rankings aren't really all that useful. When it comes to affordability the only scenario that matters is your own. You aren't moving to a place and get handed an average income job, so there's no real use in knowing that a small city in NY is pretty 'affordable' by that metric.
A lot of the places that are 'unaffordable' are dynamic markets with a high level of demand which drives up real estate prices and which leads to growth that often outpaces the job markets in those areas. A lot of the 'affordable' places are stagnant, mature markets more likely to lose people than to gain them. Northern cities benefit there from the fact that a larger % of people there now are working well-paid jobs in the public sector, providing essential services such as healthcare or what remains of legacy union jobs. But that is only of use if you can get one of those jobs, which probably isn't the case for the majority of people - hence why the 'unlucky' folks who don't tend to then move away. It's a simple equation: If you are qualified and able to work a job that would make you 70k in Upstate New York, but you can't find such a job and your choice is between going to a market where the same job makes you 50k in the South vs working a low-skill job making 35k in Upstate NY then you're going to move South.
The irony is that the overall cost of living is lower or about the same and average pay is higher in Upstate NY than much of the South, major Southern areas included. So, it really would come down to personal opportunities/choice more than anything. So, that scenario would need to be adjusted a bit relative to the data that is actually out there.
Houston has always been more affordable than Austin and Dallas, primarily because it is built for a much more working class city. And, it has very lax building codes, a historical lack of standards enforcement, plus structural quality control and workmanship issues especially in unincorporated areas, which drive down construction costs. Use of low paid undocumented laborers in the building trades is also common, though certainly occurs in Austin and Dallas also. As a former Houston homeowner, Houston homes built since the mid 1960s have historically had a bad reputation for quality, not sure if it has improved (my last "new" home was built in the early 1980s, and I had a long list of structural and quality issues). Plus, there are many thousands of flood damaged homes, and flood-prone properties, that are constantly in the churn of sales that likely also have an effect on driving down average costs.
Buffalo and Rochester prices are driven by an excess of existing older homes as a result of shrinking population in the 1960s through early 2000s. New construction costs for low and mid-range homes are as high as, and sometimes higher, than comparable homes in many parts of the country, nearly double the median cost of existing homes in those cities. But without a growing population, the number of new homes (that drive average prices higher) is minuscule compared to fast growing cities.
To be fair to Rochester, it actually has always had a population increase in every official census and does have one of the faster growing counties in NY State in the metro area(Ontario County). That could explain another aspect in that area, where exurban areas in outer counties allow for newer units at a more affordable price. Hence, the growth in the Victor/Farmington portion of that county over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor...k#Demographics
None of the Midwestern destinations re surprising to me.
I'm from TN, but have lived in both IA and IN. Housing there was a coin flip with here, but wages are notably higher.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
