Yet another CNN Money post showing Buffalo's affordable housing market

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/real_estate/1008/gallery.Most__and_least__affordable_housing_markets/6.html

Syracuse ousted Indianapolis for the number 1.

Not surprised at all with the worst 5.

Employment in the metro area has been stable with only 7.7% of the workforce unemployed, nearly 2 percentage points below the national average.

Really?

Not suprised really. Most of the cities here had their recession years ago when the steel mills and stuff were starting to shut down. When the national one hit, we already came down from our boom so it wasn’t anything too drastic.

this part is pretty cool:
“Youngstown has adapted a “rightsizing” plan that acknowledges the city is shrinking. This program includes cutting services to areas of low density and even buying out the last few homeowners on a street or in a neighborhood, tearing up the streets and repurposing the land for agricultural or open-space uses.”

Buffalo should start doing that with the east side to start.

Then where will the rats go? Real and figurative

Sewer or hood?

---------- Post added at 01:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:22 PM ----------

Fuzzy or nappy?

Ya, I’d love to spend some time in the beautiful open space of the east side of buffalo /sarcasm

I would live in Indy, Syracuse is a nice looking city and area minus the whole tons of mercury in the water supply.

I don’t think I would want to live in detroit and youngstown is like detroit, many crimes.

Are we thinking of the same Youngstown?

http://www.city-data.com/city/Youngstown-New-York.html

Look at the link, Youngstown, Ohio…

Indy is actually really nice. I have family on my dad’s side about a hour south in the boonies called Columbus Indiana.

Indy is a great city, probably the nicest city in the midwest. It’s the only one that consistently grows in population.

I go to Indy for work; I would def move there if the option presented itself. They are a growing city spending $$ on the right things and thriving. I was really impressed walking around downtown with the things to do, the people, etc.

i picked up on that too… nice to see a city admit defeat. they must have reasonable and rational humans in office there… weird

there was a great 6 bedroom house on swan street for 4 grand, no kidding we’re top 5!

hamilton is the armpit of southern Ontario and in the worst areas the real estate is still 5 times higher than the equivalent neighbourhood in Buffalo or Detroit.

I angry.

Owning a respectable home for even $150,000 is not possible in 2nd tier cities in Ontario anywhere without 90 minutes of the GTA.

Comparing Ontario to Buffalo is total opposites, you aren’t going to see real estate prices ever be even close to the same.

300k here will buy you a waterfront house on grand island.

There are many markets in the US where 150k will not buy you squat either. Buffalo is just a super depressed area.

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/08/24/america-stops-buying-homes/

You know, i just had a conversation about this recently.

With the boomers retiring having had fewer children per household than their parents and GEN X having done the same there is no way there demand will come anywhere close to supply of homes. Perhaps this is just the beginning of a larger issue where there are literally 1.5 homes per person or family? In such a case the value of all residential real estate will decrease significantly.

I’m sure we’ll run into that up here in Canada too, it’s just that our economy is solid enough that it hasnt happened yet?

Even still, with so many people retiring and moving into retirement homes or to Florida etc. you would think there would be way more people selling their homes than there would be families trying to get into those homes.

This is an important point:

America is a country where two generations of homeowners have learned to consider their houses an asset; they’re rapidly learning that at times like these, a house can look much more like a liability

housing being an important asset is a generational thing, not a fundamental point.