Anyone who likes to live in a place that is affordable, raise your hands up! The word cheap is relative to many people. But these days, cheaper real estate properties as well as cost of living, are what most people are after.
Huffington Post has a comprehensive report about the top 10 affordable places to live in America. To come up with the list, a survey has been conducted by Trulia wherein the factors that are considered are "based on housing, commuting and utilities costs."
According to the report, the methodology is basically looking at the monthly mortgage that a household is paying on a median priced home; next, checking the median amount that a household is paying for their utilities; and lastly, noting the monthly expense on commuting, which is also based on median commute expense. All these three components are being noted in each city, then the "results show the percentage of monthly income you'd spend "living" in each city."
Undeniably (and perhaps unbelievably) the state of Ohio, particularly the city of Toledo, comes first on the list. Based on the factors considered, Toledo City gives higher salaries and yet home prices are very low. This was explained by Trulia housing economist Ralph McLaughlin during an interview with Huffington Post. Syracuse, New York, too, has a similar situation with Toledo, which is considered rare since East Coast cities are usually not in this list.
"Homebuyers should look not just at their monthly mortgage payment when trying to buy, but also the cost of commuting and heating and cooling their home," McLaughlin added. He also said that in some metro areas, the home prices are relatively affordable but then other expenses like utilities and commuting are also relatively high, which obviously affect the result of the survey. He cited Houston, Texas as an example wherein the housing mortgage is low but because of the hot climate and the usual "lots of driving" give an overall result to be an expensive place to reside.
A complete list of Top 10 most affordable places including the cities that are also a bit pricey to live is reported by Trulia. The conclusion of the study states that the housing is most affordable in Ohio, least in California. "The Midwest is the most affordable place to be, especially in Ohio. Middle-class homebuyers in Akron, Dayton, Cleveland, and Toledo can get away with paying less than 20% of their monthly income on mortgage payments on a median priced home," Trulia stated further.
Below are the photos from Trulia that provide the information of the top 10 aafordable places to live, and the top 10 not so affordable cities.
