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sparksofthetempest t1_jeg5n10 wrote

I’ve been to most of those other places and I’d still pick Pittsburgh over them all every time.

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Akovsky87 t1_jeh2un9 wrote

Bangor ain't nothing to write home about. Much of the rest of Maine is wonderful though.

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JustTryingMyBestWPA t1_jeggxqm wrote

I spent my early childhood in Chambersburg, and I remember it being a cute little town. That being said, I am going to bet that salaries there aren't as high as they are in Pittsburgh. I started out my post-college life in rural PA, and I moved to this area so that I could get a job in downtown Pittsburgh and double my salary.

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Showerbeerz413 t1_jeggpt4 wrote

lol shhhh, stop telling people about how it's still affordable here

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iamnotyrmotheriswear t1_jeglmz3 wrote

Too late. Out of towners figured us out years ago. It's been so long those out of towners now consider themselves Pgh'ers.

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kittenshart85 t1_jegmtsr wrote

in upstate ny, we call it "suckacuse" for a reason.

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bill_pgh OP t1_jegssa6 wrote

Interestingly it’s the closest comparable in size and cost to Pittsburgh on the chart.

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More-Adhesiveness-54 t1_jeg8mqb wrote

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.

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Aggravating_Foot_528 t1_jeggc4s wrote

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

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More-Adhesiveness-54 t1_jeghynq wrote

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.

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Aggravating_Foot_528 t1_jegipig wrote

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.

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mckills t1_jegiqvj wrote

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.

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More-Adhesiveness-54 t1_jeglb37 wrote

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.

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bill_pgh OP t1_jegaupw wrote

Interestingly my mom grew up in Lansing and Decatur.

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More-Adhesiveness-54 t1_jegdj2q wrote

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.

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PublicCommenter t1_jegim4e wrote

Can someone please overlay this with median household income? This table is interesting but it would be an added bonus to see, like others have eluded to, how much money people are making in these places. I presume Pittsburgh has a higher median household income than most of these places but that would just be a guess.

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bill_pgh OP t1_jegskqy wrote

I would love to if I get the time. I guess it’s not in the article.

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ncdjbdnejkjbd t1_jegunm1 wrote

And a wet basement with a toilet if you need anything more than a 1 bathroom

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uglybushes t1_jeg7zp1 wrote

That has to be all of Allegheny county

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banjelina t1_jegmujs wrote

Pittsburgh itself has a population of a little over 300,000. The greater metropolitan area includes 6 other counties, some of which don't even border Allegheny.

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ScareJessica2Death t1_jegnkrk wrote

I want to move to Bangor, Maine.

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bill_pgh OP t1_jegsvmr wrote

Home of the Bangor Daily (news).

You gotta say it right to get the full effect.

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[deleted] t1_jeglrwr wrote

[deleted]

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bill_pgh OP t1_jegsq7u wrote

That’s actually right though since it’s for the metro area.

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heisenburgscousin t1_jegtqrf wrote

You’re right, didn’t see the ‘Metro’ in light font at the top. My bad

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