More-Adhesiveness-54 t1_jeg8mqb wrote on March 31, 2023 at 8:03 PM

I get Pgh's inexpensive by national standards, but having lived near Lansing MI for a few years, these numbers are kinda hard to believe. It's a bit more believable considering that these are entire metro areas (not cities proper -- look at the populations) and there are tons of houses further outside of Pgh proper that are really cheap, which has to be affecting this. That said, housing around Lansing still seemed way cheaper. I knew a good number of grad students there who didn't earn much buying entire houses and my rent was always a good amount lower than in Pgh (though I'm aware differences in rent ≠ differences in home values).

What was the cutoff for including metros on this list, 100k population? If so, I'm also surprised places like Cumberland MD or Decatur IL aren't on here.

Aggravating_Foot_528 t1_jeggc4s wrote on March 31, 2023 at 8:54 PM

they're using median home price, which generally smooths out the data at the far ends of the curve.

More-Adhesiveness-54 t1_jeghynq wrote on March 31, 2023 at 9:05 PM

I noticed that, too.

To my point above re: living in Michigan, seeing median vs. mean home prices reminds me of looking at house value data in Detroit a couple years after the '08 collapse. At one point, median house prices there got down to something insane like $10k. The mean value was significantly higher due to homes owned by extremely well-off people.

edit: It was $7,500. Wow.

Aggravating_Foot_528 t1_jegipig wrote on March 31, 2023 at 9:11 PM

I remember going down to the Joe and Cobo and Greektown in the early 90s and large parts of Detroit were pretty downtrodden then too. And it got magnitudes worse after the great recession. Ditto with Cleveland. Pittsburgh dodged a bullet with that one.

mckills t1_jegiqvj wrote on March 31, 2023 at 9:11 PM

Yeah I rented a brand new apartment for like…$700 a month in a very urban area of Lansing. A similar apartment here is easily 1600+. I never know how these places get their numbers because as someone who’s lived both places, Pittsburgh is way way more expensive.

One of my advisors in school bought a nice 3 bed 2 bath house close to MSU for like $150k. Unheard of here to pay that for an actually livable building near any amenities.

More-Adhesiveness-54 t1_jeglb37 wrote on March 31, 2023 at 9:29 PM

The faculty I knew at MSU had some beautiful houses. A lot of them lived in Okemos or near Lake Lansing which I think was a little more expensive, but still probably super reasonably priced.

bill_pgh OP t1_jegaupw wrote on March 31, 2023 at 8:18 PM

Interestingly my mom grew up in Lansing and Decatur.

More-Adhesiveness-54 t1_jegdj2q wrote on March 31, 2023 at 8:36 PM

Ha, that is random. Haven't been to Lansing in years. My SO's family is from Decatur, so we're out that way a fair amount. That drive feels like it never ends.