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I own 3 homes and make about what it says to own one.
According to that chart, I have to make about 250K, yet I own what I would consider "luxury" properties in great locations in three states.
Shows you how accurate these clickbait articles are.....
I'm somewhat surprised by the orange states... ie: everyone says Texas is so affordable, but according to this it's higher than average.
The most affordable state is West Virginia, but I suspect that there aren't many good jobs there.
Texas has very high property taxes and insurance because of all the damage that occurs there. Of course, those that say it's erroneous to measure this by a state given the variance in cost in different locales are correct, it doesn't take much to buy a house where I'm retiring (Richland, Wa) but it takes a hell of a lot in Seattle, Bellevue, Sammamish, etc. Still, I think if you accept the premise that there will be wide variation within most states, it's good information for what it is.
The problem with this is the basic economics Of house values being super high in the metros because of the concentration of high paying, good jobs. The lower housing costs in these states are in the areas with low paying jobs or no professional jobs.
It doesn’t make sense to look at an average income vs an average house cost because that’s not even a realistic scenario.
A state average house cost located in a major metro is probably going to be in the ghetto or need a full gut. So sure, you make a middle tier wage in a big metro to put you above the state average dragged down by the low paying areas....but that just means you can’t afford a good house in that metro and you sure as hell cant commute in.
Outside of finding the super good Fortune 500 job located in a small town, you aren’t going to see high wages and low housing. Or a high end remote job.
Absolutely correct.
I work in a Rust Belt-ey town dominated by a Fortune 500 HQ chemical plant and other manufacturing businesses. Housing is "cheap," but it may not necessarily be housing you would want to live in, and it will probably need work.
You can go a little more upmarket, still affordable, and find plenty of old 50s home. Some are very tastefully remodeled.
If you want a "modern suburban home," we're not cheaper than anyone else. Oh, and median household income is in the low-mid $30k range.
Ohio is number 2, close behind number 1 West Virginia. Ohio does not have a reputation as a low cost, low tax state, but the more I look, the more I find that moving out of state would end up costing me more to live.
Even though Ohio has a lot of moderate to larger sized cities, none of them are particularly high COL - so there's not the impact like Chicago on IL or NYC on NY...etc.
Nah man there are lots of small cities in Arizona that aren't pricey resort towns, most of 'em are pretty cheap. For example Yuma is much bigger than Prescott/Sedona/Flag. Bullhead, AJ, Sierra Vista, etc.
Small towns in Illinois have homes for $10,000 for sale or even less. Small towns in Arizona you are going to pay almost 10 times that for small starter home. Hard finding any home in the state for under 50K now. Proximity to California plays a big part. Yuma a town of 100,000 median home prices are 150K. Rockford, IL a town of 150,000 people has a median home price of $86K.
Doing a basic search of Zillow. Homes in the price range of $3,000-$100,000 there are 10,000 homes out of 51,000 homes for sale in Illinois and 1000 homes out of 41,000 in Arizona. 20% of the homes in Illinois are under $100K but only 2% of Arizona homes. So of course despite higher prices in Chicago it pulls the average down.
Million dollar plus homes there are more in Arizona for sale than in Illinois even though Illinois has about 20% more homes for sale.
So yes Arizona should require more income to buy a home than in Illinois.
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