What is the most affordable city with a 1M+ metro population? (real estate, insurance)

[nadnerb]

Originally Posted by NearFantastica

Most affordable


Least affordable


https://porch.com/advice/cities-wher...s-the-furthest

Here's the median annual wages for all occupations across each metro area in May 2020 (sourced from BLS):

1 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 69,620
2 San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA 61,790
3 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 60,480
4 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 58,330
5 Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, MA-NH 57,080
6 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT 53,030
7 New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA 52,020
8 Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO 50,170
9 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI 49,700
10 Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD 48,470
11 Urban Honolulu, HI 48,310
12 San Diego-Carlsbad, CA 48,200
13 Sacramento--Roseville--Arden-Arcade, CA 48,070
14 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 48,050
15 Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY 47,650
16 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD 46,500
17 Providence-Warwick, RI-MA 46,000
18 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 45,550
19 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI 45,420
20 Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI 44,840
21 Austin-Round Rock, TX 44,020
22 Raleigh, NC 43,500
23 Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI 43,380
24 Kansas City, MO-KS 43,200
25 Pittsburgh, PA 43,200
26 Richmond, VA 43,090
27 Cleveland-Elyria, OH 42,740
28 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 42,710
29 Rochester, NY 42,430
30 Columbus, OH 42,370
31 Salt Lake City, UT 42,280
32 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA 42,220
33 Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX 42,090
34 St. Louis, MO-IL 42,060
35 Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY 42,040
36 Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA 41,730
37 Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN 41,660
38 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC 41,520
39 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC 41,410
40 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 41,300
41 Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN 40,910
42 Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN 40,650
43 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 39,630
44 Birmingham-Hoover, AL 39,530
45 Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI 39,430
46 Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN 39,330
47 Oklahoma City, OK 39,080
48 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 38,930
49 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL 38,690
50 New Orleans-Metairie, LA 38,280
51 Jacksonville, FL 38,280
52 Tulsa, OK 38,210
53 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX 37,920
54 Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV 37,690
55 Memphis, TN-MS-AR 37,110
56 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL 36,580

[Strannik33]

If you qualify for Section 8, any city becomes the most affordable one. . .

[mjtinmemphis]

It's interesting how low the wages are in Memphis and Nashville.

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by Space_League

Oklahoma usually does well on this. If you have a good oil job it pays as good as anywhere but the houses tend to be dirt cheap. Maybe because it's ugly and the weather seems to only come in sweltering heat and bitter cold

Yes, Tulsa does well in Oklahoma for being cheap, while having the advantage of not having had any tornados of legendary strength and fewer big hailstorms than OKC, plus Tulsa will bribe you with $10,000 to move there if agreeing to take on a remote job or buy a house. Also Tulsa isn't as ugly as OKC. After all, Tulsa names a hill as Turkey Mountain. Oklahoma City's Persimmon Hill doesn't compete well with it. But a big, major problem with Tulsa is that it doesn't have a lot of good paying jobs, so a lot of people aren't willing to be bribed to move there.

Tulsa is probably the biggest metro wanting to bribe you to move there.

It's important to know that quite a few good oil jobs have fled Oklahoma for Houston over the years. Oklahoma has lost a number of big oil companies HQs to Houston.

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by mjtinmemphis

It's interesting how low the wages are in Memphis and Nashville.

No wonder. The minimum wage in Tennessee is $7.25. Nevertheless, Tennessee is growing faster than most other states. That is because unlike most other states Tennessee does not have an income tax. It also has better looking scenery than other states, such as Oklahoma and Kansas, with $7.25 as the minimum wage.

[ckhthankgod]

This shows the Average Annual Wage for metro areas from the BLS: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm

Also, this Housing Opportunity Index information from the National Association of Home Builders offers insight in terms of where Median Home Price in relation to Median Family Income yields more opportunity to buy a home in a particular area: https://www.nahb.org/News%20and%20Ec...ing%20criteria

By Affordability Rank: https://www.nahb.org/-/media/NAHB/ne...nk-2021q3.xlsx

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by NearFantastica

Most affordable


Least affordable


https://porch.com/advice/cities-wher...s-the-furthest

Hey look DFW is pricier than Austin.

[Spade]

DFW is also pricier than Chicago.

Baltimore is pricier than Philadelphia.

[Joakim3]

Originally Posted by Spade

DFW is also pricier than Chicago.

Baltimore is pricier than Philadelphia.

It's metro wide, not the city proper.

DFW & Baltimore have uber posh burbs.

[GTB365]

Originally Posted by mjlo

ABQ isn’t a million person metro.

Correct, but Albuquerque metro population is getting close at over 900,000,
it's CSA, which includes Santa Fe, is over 1 million.

Similar for El Paso, it's metro population a bit less than Albuquerque, about 870,000,
it's CSA, which includes Las Cruces, NM, is also over 1 million.

Maybe by 2030 both will have metro populations over 1 million,
both are very affordable with great climates.