Not only is Columbus affordable in comparison to US cities but Columbus is affordable in comparison to cities in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia
It boggles my mind to have to think about all of those cities... in all of those countries...227 markets. The 50+ page Demographia report boggles my mind. I hate to post a pdf but I enjoyed reading (maybe skimming is a better description) the 4th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey by Wendell Cox and Hugh Pavlitech.
Page 7. Page 27 and Page 34 show how affordable Columbus is. Many Ohio cities are on the list of the most affordable cites, Youngstown is the number two most affordable city in all those countries behind Thunder Bay in Canada. Toledo is on the affordable list, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Akron, Canton and Dayton are there...
Why is Columbus affordable? Land is not rationed. Our urban sprawl (suburbanization), growing out into the cornfields has kept housing affordable in Columbus. They blame urban planning, rationing land and "prescriptive planning" for un-affordable housing.
Other than on the charts I did not specifically see Columbus mentioned and nothing about the cornfields at all... but they talked specifically about other cities on the list, about inexpensive home building being possible because of inexpensive land... on the fringes...
Columbus is tied for the 37th most affordable city among the 227 markets. Columbus is tied with Atlanta GA, Harrisburg PA, Louisville KY, Sudbury Canada and Winston - Salem NC.
Thanks to Jeff Royce who writes Northern Virginia Real Estate in Fairfax VA (not affordable? Is Fairfax lumped in with Washington DC... or is Fairfax VA there somewhere) for bringing this survey to my attention via a Twitter. Jeff is originally from Akron Ohio....
Columbus has affordable housing... now if only there was cheap, plentiful, non polluting fuel for all the motor vehicles that suburbia and urban sprawl require... I don't think the authors address that in the survey.
Feb. 13, 2008 - RE: Columbus housing is affordable
Posted by buckblog
I'm not surprised Columbus ranks as reasonably affordable, having heard anecdotal evidence from those who have moved into Columbus or moved from Columbus. Having been to Harrisburg and Louisville I can see we sure get more for our money than they do. I noticed many of the cities ranked as more affordable than Columbus are examples of urban blight which means the price is cheap because the demand is low. It seems Columbus is nestled comfortably in the middle.
As far as those unaffordable cities many of those are because of high demand and lack of land. I also noticed many which seem to have regulated themselves out of affordability through construction, zoning and environmental regulations. Columbus has managed to avoid that for the most part. I realize this isn't a political blog so I'll leave it at that.
My observation is that even the traffic we have as a result of our sprawl is really not that bad compared to what I have experienced traveling in other cities.
"I noticed many of the cities ranked as more affordable than Columbus are examples of urban blight which means the price is cheap because the demand is low. It seems Columbus is nestled comfortably in the middle."
I think the Demographia Survey chooses to talk about "depressed markets" rather than blighted. I am somewhat familiar with some of the cities in the affordable category, as well as some that are in other categories.
There is a market I am very familiar with which the city is very depressed but the suburbs are a lot pricier than Columbus suburbs but it is on the list as more affordable than Columbus. Averaging... median price. Something like this can not give you the full picture of what life in a community is like.
Also I think in another city it is easier to see "blight" than it is at home. Columbus is a big city, there are neighborhoods that would terrify visitors here that we may be used to. I know visiting other cities in unfamiliar surroundings it is easier to see "blight" or just a depressed area of town, than it is at home.
People come to Columbus from more rural areas of Ohio and the traffic seems horrible. Some neighborhoods scare the heck out of them. It's all relative. People relocate to Columbus from other cities and complain it is too vanilla ice cream, there's not enough grit.
It is what it is.
I did not read all 50 plus pages word for word... but kept skimming for anything that was about Columbus. They mentioned some of the other cities we are tied with (Atlanta ?? that amazed me... ) and highlighted that they are NOT depressed markets. I think they overlooked some amazing things about OUR market but I think Columbus is often overlooked, just lumped in with the Rust Belt cities... or those poor depressed big cities in Ohio.
I was not good in economics in high school or college, got decent grades but other than the basics... It was not something that sunk into my brain. Somehow I took a class in college about urban planning and I enjoy reading about it now. Anything I learned has laid dormant in my brain for years.
I appreciate you not going all political on me... I took a political science class in college too. Way over my head....imagine that?
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