Are you feeling down about life in a bloated apple?
A new study finds the country’s most affordable cities are just a half-day’s drive away, and several hours closer to the comforts of home than the current hotspots popular with fleeing New Yorkers.
Say hello to Pittsburgh and consider moving there.
Today, the median home price is $274,900, and this mostly former steel town still cherishes its blue-collar roots while also cherishing a unique, quirky artistic tradition: It was the birthplace of Andy Warhol, the training ground for a young Keith Haring, the hometown of Fred “The Mister” Rogers, and the setting for 1980s teen dream film “Flashdance.”
According to the Pittsburgh Planner, a website that aims to help people considering moving to Pittsburgh get to know the city better, Some highlights Living in Perry Como’s hometown of Carnegie Mellon University and Chips Chopped Ham Sandwiches creates “walkable, dense, vibrant” neighborhoods that make for a “big city that lives like a small town.”
The surprising nod to the nation’s 25th-largest consolidated metropolitan area comes in the 2024 edition of Demographia International House Prices report.
This highly acclaimed research paper, produced jointly by Chapman University’s Demographic and Policy Center and the Frontier Public Policy Center, assesses housing affordability in 94 major metropolitan areas across eight affluent countries: Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and the US.
But while visitors to New York may be surprised at how many homes they can get for a few million dollars, Pittsburgh is by no means immune to the home-affordability problems facing most other U.S. cities, the report said.
In fact, the study’s authors even went so far as to classify Pittsburgh as “moderately unlivable.”
According to Realtor.com, the median price of homes currently on the market is trending toward $300,000, at a 4.9% year-over-year rate.
The rise comes as the region, famous for its past shift from steel to education, health care and technology, is actually struggling to level up again, according to Alan Berube, director of the Brookings Metro program at the Brookings Institution.
As an example, Berube pointed out that the Capital Region ranks last in overall job growth. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report.
“The region’s best-in-class research assets have yet to produce the best job creation and inclusive growth,” he said. “The full potential of Pittsburgh’s next-generation economy has yet to be realized.”
Meanwhile, at the other end of the list, Gotham is predictably expensive, coming in at 77th out of 94 cities, but it’s still cheaper than other major global cities like London, Toronto and Sydney.
Five U.S. cities made it into the top 10 of the shameful list: San Jose, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Honolulu.
The least liveable city in 2024 will be Hong Kong, ranked 94th.
“This study has important implications for the outlook for upward mobility: High home prices relative to incomes have a decidedly feudalistic effect on our home state of California, with young people, minorities and immigrants suffering primarily,” said Joel Kotkin, director of Chapman University’s Center for Demographics and Policy.
