Buffalo housing deemed most affordable

[steven]

The Center for Housing Policy, the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference, released the study, Paycheck to Paycheck: Wages and the Cost of Housing in America. The report looks at the median prices of homes in over 180 U.S. metropolitan areas and the affordability based on wages. It incorporates conventional mortgage underwriting guidelines requiring that not more than 28 percent of household income should be used to pay the mortgage, property taxes and insurance. A down payment of 10 percent is assumed.

Buffalo, the study found, was the second most affordable market. That is based on a median home price of $85,000, which would require an annual income of $27,000 to purchase.

Lima, Ohio placed ahead of Buffalo on the affordability chart. Five California metro areas, with San Francisco at the top, were found to be the costliest places to live. The study said with a median home price of $705,000, it would take a yearly salary of nearly $225,000 to buy a home in San Francisco.

The National Housing Conference said the median price of a home in the U.S. rose 20 percent in just a year and a half, while at the same time wages for key community workers remained weak, even stagnant, in comparison. The study found that from the fourth quarter 2003 to first quarter 2005 the cost of a median priced home increased from $186,000 to $225,000, while at the same time the annual income needed to qualify to purchase a home grew from $54,855 to $71,354.

Yet, the report said, wages for key community workers such as elementary school teachers, police officers, licensed practical nurses, retail salespersons and janitors in the majority of cities nationwide remained flat and, in some metropolitan areas, are still significantly below the amount needed to purchase a home.

"Across the nation we are seeing a growing disparity between the skyrocketing home prices of recent years and the minimal increase, if not flattening, in wages for our nation's community workers," said Barbara Lipman, research director for the Center for Housing Policy. "Additionally, the disturbing trend of retail salespersons and janitors, and those in similar wage groups, paying in excess of what is considered affordable in order to rent a one- or two-bedroom apartment continues in metropolitan areas throughout the country."

In the Buffalo market, however, three of those occupations earn more than enough to purchase a home, based on the data provided. The median salary is $46,584 for an elementary school teacher; $45,086 for a police officer; and $37,554 for a licensed practical nurse. The same wage scale is $24,298 for a retail salesperson and $23,390 for a janitor.

The Paycheck to Paycheck study compares homeownership and rental affordability findings with median community wages for nearly 200 metropolitan areas and more than 60 occupations. It can be found at www.NHC.org.

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/s...ml?jst=b_ln_hl

[crlachepinochet]

Forget just "community workers"... many, many other people have seen their wages become mostly stagnant, too. I suspect we could have guessed that the teachers and police officers make enough to but a home in the city.

[WestCoastPerspective]

Report: Buffalo has nation's oldest homes, lowest housing values
G. Scott Thomas
Buffalo has the oldest homes and the lowest housing values of any major American city, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

More than three-quarters of the homes in Buffalo were built before 1940, far and away the highest concentration of old houses in any city with more than a quarter-million residents.

And the median value of owner-occupied homes in Buffalo -- $59,368 -- is substantially lower than in any other city included in the report.

The Census Bureau on Tuesday released 2004 estimates from the American Community Survey, which uses polling data to generate annual demographic reports. Roughly 800,000 households across the nation were surveyed by the bureau in 2004.

The results reflect only the ages and values of homes within 70 major cities with populations of 250,000 or more. Suburban property was not covered.

The majority of the housing stock in seven cities predates World War II, with Buffalo substantially ahead of the six runners-up. These are the percentages of housing units standing in 2004 that had been built in 1939 or earlier:

Buffalo, 76.9 percent
Boston, 58.1 percent
St. Louis, 55.9 percent
San Francisco, 53.2 percent
Minneapolis, 53.1 percent
Pittsburgh, 52.4 percent
Cleveland, 52.1 percent

At the opposite end of the scale are five cities where less than 1 percent of the housing stock was built prior to 1940: Las Vegas; Anchorage; Mesa, Ariz.; Arlington, Texas; and Virginia Beach.

The Census Bureau report also found that Buffalo is the only city with a median housing value below $70,000. (Median is a midpoint, with half of all houses being higher and half being lower.)

These are the five cities with the lowest median values for owner-occupied housing units:

Buffalo, $59,368
Pittsburgh, $73,271
El Paso, $76,298
Corpus Christi, Texas, $82,592
Cleveland, $83,933

The city with the highest median housing value is San Francisco at $661,904, which is 11 times higher than the figure for Buffalo. It's followed by six other California cities (San Jose, San Diego, Oakland, Anaheim, Long Beach and Los Angeles), all with medians above $400,000.

[300miles]

The majority of the housing stock in seven cities predates World War II, with Buffalo substantially ahead of the six runners-up. These are the percentages of housing units standing in 2004 that had been built in 1939 or earlier:

Buffalo, 76.9 percent
Boston, 58.1 percent
St. Louis, 55.9 percent
San Francisco, 53.2 percent
Minneapolis, 53.1 percent
Pittsburgh, 52.4 percent
Cleveland, 52.1 percent

I think we all knew Buffalo has a big stock of old homes... but this still surprised me how MUCH MORE buffalo has than other cities.

77% is huge!