The 25 Best Affordable Suburbs in the U.S.

Business Week ^ | Maya Roney

[RockinRight]

Low crime, reasonable commute, and good schools—who says you can't find a nice house in a suburb without paying a fortune? Buying your first house? Fleeing the city for a life within your means? Here's a novel idea: Move to a suburb where you won't break the bank or get your car broken into. A community with reasonable home prices and decent schools. A suburb close to your city job, with a lively downtown of its own. For hedge-fund managers, plastic surgeons, corporate lawyers, and other people who earn millions a year, choosing a suburb is not about affordability but convenience and, frankly, prestige. These folks don't balk at high prices or look for fixer-uppers. They can pay for prime real estate on the most exclusive streets in the fanciest towns with the best schools. If they want to live in Greenwich or Brookline or Lake Forest or Malibu, they can. Unfortunately, most people aren't so lucky. Most people have to balance their real estate aspirations with reality—compromising on acreage or culture in exchange for better schools or lower property taxes.

[RockinRight]

They talk like this: The looks for places that suit the typical professional American family, making $50,000 or $60,000 a year.

Then go on to say With a median home price of $493,900, life in Sharon is also much more economical than in the affluent communities of Brookline, Newton, and other towns closer to Boston.

I don't consider $493,900 the least-bit affordable for most families on a 50 - 60k income. Unless they already own a home with lots of equity, and the first part of the article even mentions "first home." The entire article is based on affordable housing then they talk about all these places where the houses cost 10 times the annual income of the target families.

This isn't a "bubble" article, I'm just showing the total ignorance of some media writers to reality. The average home price for the places on this list is over 300k...so figure, even at 20% down on $350,000, that's a loan of $280,000 which ends up about $2000 a month with tax and insurance, give or take. Take that $50,000 a year family, and they only bring home about $2700 a month of their income...they have $700 to live on for an entire month after mortgage payments?? I don't think so!

[Froufrou]

You're right. The only way this would fly is if it were NOT the first home and they had some multi-K's coming in from a sale.

[goldstategop]

I don't consider such a home affordable... they're kidding, right?

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[2banana]

Take West Nyack, N.Y., this year's best affordable New York City suburb. About a 30-minute drive from Manhattan, West Nyack is one of five villages and hamlets that make up an area on the western bank of the Hudson River known as "The Nyacks." The neighborhood, which has a median home price of $605,700 (vs. New York City's $963,700), is perhaps known best as the location of Palisades Center, the largest shopping mall in the New York metropolitan area.

$605,000 is AFFORDABLE? What kind of crack is this?

[spikeytx86]

To the MSM $50-60K a year household income is destitution.

[dakine]

"...$50-60K a year household income is destitution."


In the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic...it is!

[RockinRight]

Or most of California...

[spikeytx86]

"The property tax rate is just 7%. "

>Spikey collapses on the floor and begins to convulsing at most idiotic comment in history.<

[Gay State Conservative]

I don't consider $493,900 the least-bit affordable for most families on a 50 - 60k income.

It's true that in many parts of the country $500K is an outrageous price for a house but in the nicer suburbs of Boston it's chickenfeed.

OTOH,the median in these same suburbs is in excess of $100K/yr.

[goldstategop]

"Affordable" in this category would be for a two earner upper income household with cash to spare. They would beyond the reach, at that price segment, of the vast majority of people in the country. The national median is $55,000 a year for a two earner household.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[RockinRight]

Sick thing is, you can't get anything for much under 300k at all in those markets. Even in bad areas.

[madison10]

The mortgage payment would be MORE than that household's entire income!

...for four or five years. I can see that the main stream press really has a handle on the happenings in the lives and the welfare of the Middle Class.

[dakine]

Exactly...so housing prices are all relative to the incomes of the folks who live in that area...

[RockinRight]

Doesn't change my analysis - I still don't know how people making 50 - 60k could even DREAM of affording that.

[Our man in washington]

They list Herndon, Virginia as the #1 place in the Washington D.C. suburbs. Try commuting from there to downtown Washington D.C. Got four extra hours each day?

Even just driving to nearby jobs can be a nightmare around there.

[RockinRight]

Even at 100k I'd be a bit nervous spending 500k on a house, truth be told...

[RockinRight]

Not quite...median income in CA is 47000 or so. Only about 8k better than Ohio, where housing is one-fifth the cost.

[freekitty]

Yeah, who are these idiots talking about?