The 10 Most and Least Affordable Cities in the US

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Jun 13, 2002
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siccness.net
#1
The 10 Most and Least Affordable Cities in the US

By Adam Pash, 12:00 PM on Fri Feb 20 2009


The National Association of Home Builders has released their Housing Opportunity Index covering the most and least affordable cities in the country. Here's a quick rundown of the top 10 metropolitan areas with a population over 500,000.

Ten Least Affordable Cities

1. New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ
2. San Francisco-San mateo-Redwood City, CA
3. Nassau-Suffolk, NY
4. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA
5. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL
6. Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA
7. El Paso, TX
8. Newark-Union, NJ-PA
9. Honolulu, HI
10. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA


Ten Most Affordable Cities

1. Indianapolis-Carmel, IN
2. Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI
3. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA
4. Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI
5. Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI
6. Syracuse, NY
7. Dayton, OH
8. Akron, OH
9. Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH
10. Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA

If the big city isn't your thing, you may be more interested in checking into the most and least affordable cities under 500,000:

Ten Least Affordable Cities with a Population Under 500,000

1. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA
2. Ocean City, NJ
3. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA
4. Napa, CA
5. Flagstaff, AZ
6. Medford, OR
7. Bend, OR
8. Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA
9. St. George, UT
10. Laredo, TX

Ten Most Affordable Cities with a Population Under 500,000

1. Lansing-East Lansing, MI
2. Sandusky, OH
3. Lima, OH
4. Springfield, OH
5. Bay City, MI
6. Battle Creek, MI
7. Canton-Massillon, OH
8. Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, MI
9. Utica-Rome, NY
10. Binghamton, NY

For more fun stats brought to you by NAHB and Wells Fargo, be sure to head to the official Housing Opportunity Index page below. For a slightly different take, check out last year's guide to the best US cities to live, work, and play. Let's hear how the NAHB's list matches up to your expectations (good god, Ohio!) in the comments.

NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) [via Consumerist]
 
Nov 27, 2006
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#5
I go to school in San Luis Obispo and it is dumbass expensive to live here. I wanna graduate and get the hell outta here be4 im completely broke
 
Aug 6, 2008
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#11
u really thought it was that bad there? i didnt think so..least the times i been over there...

but its still OC so its gonna be expensive to live there compared to the rest of the country...
maybe its just where they lived, like the area or somethin... they did live in a crackhouse tho lol maybe that kinda slanted my judgement
 
May 30, 2006
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Places I've lived before that made the list:
San Francisco
Grand Rapids
Dayton
Santa Cruz
Watsonville
Napa (for like a couple weeks)
and I'm staying in San Louis Obisbo for the weekend.
Ain't that crazy? And I'm only 23.
Places I lived by the time I was 23
Los Angeles(south central and watts)
Long Beach
North Highlands
Sacramento
Stockton
Paramount
Fontana
Highland
Citruis Hieghts
Rialto
Rancho Cucamonga
San Bernardino

I been on the run my damn self ever since I left the womb.....lol.
 

drewski.kalonji

Shark Finning & Grinning
May 17, 2002
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#19
places i've also lived that didn't make the list:
Muskegon, MI
Flint, MI
Sonoma, CA
Fairfield, CA
San José, CA
Sacramento (midtown), CA
The big island for a summer, HI

The highest level of living I was surrounded by was definetely when residing in Sonoma or Santa Cruz. The lowest was Flint and Dayton. Shit is way different in the midwest folks. Take the distinct financial differences of Palo Alto to over the 101 and into the east and multiply that by like 5. Not to mention all the crumbling town buildings that people don't even have enough money to demolish.

Places I'd like to live:
Denver, Vancouver, maybe New Zealand.