Most Affordable Places To Live Well (Ten Most Affordable Cities)

Forbes ^ | 6 November 2007 | Matt Wolsey

[shrinkermd]

Triple-digit monthly parking fees, $12 movie tickets, clogged intersections and weekly grocery bills that rival some mortgage payments. Welcome to life in the Big Apple. And Los Angeles. And Chicago.

But, it's possible to enjoy such amenities without the hassles. Step one? Look for more affordable spots that offer a similar or better quality of life, and where the dollar goes far.

The Cities are:

• Minneapolis
• Indianapolis
• Cincinnati
• St. Louis
• Houston
• Milwaukee
• Dallas
• Pittsburg
• Columbus
• Atlanta

[Iron Munro]

This has to be some kind of a leftist scam.
Of couse, if you don’t consider quality of life.....

Minneapolis
Indianapolis
Cincinnati
St. Louis
Houston
Milwaukee
Dallas
Pittsburg
Columbus
Atlanta

[grey_whiskers]

Hint: Southern Delaware-Lower slower Delaware.

Yes, the State of DuPont.

Do you go to Ocean City, or prefer the Chesapeake Bay?

Cheers!

[ReignOfError]

I would live in Detroit if they gave me the entire city free!

I wouldn't go that far. If they gave me the entire city free, I might be able to line up investors and make something of the place. Though I'd keep a residence in the South i could retreat to.

The problem with Detroit is that it has nothing to offer. You can get a big house there, well-built and in good shape, for next to nothing, and maybe even in a pretty safe neighborhood -- but there are no jobs that would let you pay for it. Bottom line, if there are no jobs there is no city.

The only way to save Detroit -- and even this might not work -- is to give someone or someones large tracts and give them free rein to fix some structures and raze others. Build an industrial park and restore the houses around it. Offer tax incentives for businesses to locate there.

Create jobs, and workers will appear. That was what built Detroit in the first place. The big 3 automakers threw out the welcome mat and folks flocked to fill the jobs. Especially blacks in the South, who had few opportunities close to home, and who would use any cash they could beg, borrow or steal to get a train or bus ticket so they could work in a Ford plant.

With the bad climate (I don't like cold), bad reputation for crime, the shrinking job base as American auto manufacturing has shrunk, Detroit is at the point where civic leaders should be charging the defib paddles and yelling "clear!"

Jobs jobs jobs jobs jobs. That is what builds or rebuilds a city. Detroit can't sell an acre for a dime, because the pool of jobs is shrinking. Folks are moving out, even abandoning outright houses they cant sell. Atlanta is generating jobs, and we can't stop the influx. We could set up a picket line around Chattanooga or Kennesaw, but we tried that before and it ended badly.

[grey_whiskers]

Sam smiled and checked his watch. About ten minutes later -- just enough time to fall back asleep -- he reached into the bucket, produced another tennis ball, and did it again. Same result. A few minutes later, he handed me a ball, and I threw a strike. I think we did that three or four more times before we got bored with it and went inside to cook breakfast.

LOL! Thanks for making my day!

Cheers!

[HIDEK6]

As a lifelong resident of the ‘Burgh it bugs me when Pittsburgh is misspelled.

Get over yourself. They're probably talking about Pittsburg, CA.

[grey_whiskers]

You have not lived until you've been camping on the North Shore of Lake Superior in mid-summer, and gotten up in the middle of the night to see the full moon reflecting off of the Lake and the trees.

Cheers!

Full Disclosure: watching out-of-state transplants tooling over the snow and ice in 70 mph in their SUVs while on their cell phones, then seening them five miles later in a ditch, *is* entertaining, though.

Cheers!

[McLynnan]

Not to worry. I like clean air and water.

Taking a deep breath, having a glass of water and not experiencing any air or water issues. It's a big state. Just the same you should stay away.

[ReignOfError]

Crime statistics can be misleading. They’re expressed in terms of crimes per 100,000 population. Atlanta has a population of about 425K in the city limits, 5 million in the metro area. There are a couple million people in the city limits on a given business day, because folks commute. But the crime stats are based on the number of official residents, not the number of people present.

Any big city is going to have more crime than a small town, because it has more people. More people who don’t know each other and can’t rat out a perp to the cops. In a small town, someone’s gonna see you who knows you.

Urbanites know which neighborhoods to live in and which to avoid. Same in any city. I’ve walked, sometimes drunkenly, through most of the high-crime cities in this country, and I’ve never come to harm. Stick with the crowd and stay alert. It’s not that difficult.

[ReignOfError]

Thanks. I hope you take inspiration. When it’s so easy to taunt the a-holes, how can you not?

[ABN 505]

My wife and I accientally drove through East St. Louis once. The middle of a weekday and the stoops were populated by young black men drinking and glaring at us. Scary place.Go to any inner city in any part of the country and see the same thing young blacks with chips on their shoulders and no incentive to work sitting on stoops.I see it in N.Y.Buffalo,Hartford, Waterbury,Springfield, Chicopee and every place I go to. Different towns same additude.

[Desparado]

Sounds like a lot of good memories! Our daughter graduated from UT we have a lot of good times what with the goings on at a big Univ. Our son is a guitar player so we hear a lot of stories about downtown and the “Old City” from his escapades. All in all, we love living here. It was a good move for our family!

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Same thing here - Allentown, PA. Scary

[ought-six]

“Anyone who says Cincinnati is a crime ridden hell hole has obviously never been to Cincinati.”

Glad to hear that all the violence and mayhem in Cincinnati that dominated the news a few years back was an aberration.

[Desparado]

All good points. Having lived in Miami my whole adult life (incl.going to Florida State) I don’t really consider myself a Yankee anymore. I’m happy for my kids who have no intention of leaving Tenn. When I read about the politics of New England, it’s hard to believe they’re even a part of our country anymore! But you are right. There is a black cloud rolling into Tenn. By way of Calif/Ohio/Mich/and transplanted Floridians from the Nortrh. We are all heading for the hills if you know what I mean. There’s still a lot of good deals. We just bought 6 acres on a hilltop up near Sevierville for $35,000. Regards:

[Clink]

Glad to hear that all the violence and mayhem in Cincinnati that dominated the news a few years back was an aberration.

I take it you get your news from Katie Couric, CNN, et al. Lord knows the MSM would never misrepresent the realities of a situation.

[television is just wrong]

lol, yeah I know
they are trying to revitalize them by bring normal non criminal types in there, and yes it is at real risk.

[ought-six]

“I take it you get your news from Katie Couric, CNN, et al. Lord knows the MSM would never misrepresent the realities of a situation.”

Actually, no. I get it from our law offices in Cincinnati.

[RightWhale]

Not simple to compute the cost of living in the bush. Probably only a handful of people actually live off the land. Gov’t provides much such as schools no charge to the locals.

[VOA]

I almost can’t believe that East St. Louis was named an “All-American”
city in 1959.
By the time I visited St. Louis in the early 1980s, people I knew
that accepted that St. Louis had real problems noted that East St. Louis
was at least an order of magnitude worse.

Sounds like East St. Louis should be a great “negative model” for
urban planning/managment courses.
As well as a monument to the way in which “government helps” when
a city is in trouble.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_St._Louis,_Illinois

[Tamar1973]

When I was a kid, we'd visit relatives in St. Louis every year—a straight shot out I-70. Without fail, Dad would always stop & gas up the car somewhere near Vandalia, Illinois just to avoid running out of gas in East St. Louis!

Ah....you're bringing back some memories...not necessarily good memories! LOL!