Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Affordable, Sure…But Smartest?
The Kiplinger “50 Smart Places to Live” is the most recent compilation of “best places to live” or “relocate” list that has garnered the attention of Pittsburgh boosters: this is due to the fact that the City (really the metro area) was ninth on the list. The ranking was assembled by a survey of the magazine’s readers who listed the factors most important to their decision to put down roots. Not surprisingly, costs associated with housing topped the list and was the driving factor in the survey. Other items like crime, weather, and commute times were also figured in.
The data accompanying the narrative shows that, among other things, Pittsburgh was one of only two areas to lose population (Abilene, TX was the other—how can a place be smart if people are leaving?); there were six other cities with median home prices lower than Pittsburgh ($105,040); and the one-year home price change in Pittsburgh (5.5%) was bested by two-thirds of the 50 places.
There is no doubt that Pittsburgh is affordable: but is it a smart place to invest in a home, where property tax rates are sky high? Is it smarter, for instance, to buy an average price home here and take the annual 5.5 percent growth in value as opposed to paying a little more somewhere else and having the home appreciate faster? It would seem the latter might be smarter, at least financially. But we can’t tell from the article.
And though the Kiplinger list gave points for economic vitality to “well-diversified economies that are good places to start or expand businesses”, there is nothing in the data that shows how Pittsburgh did on this measure. No data on what constitutes a “strong economy”, in their words, is present.
http://www.kiplinger.com/personalfinance/features/archives/2006/05/intro.html
The data accompanying the narrative shows that, among other things, Pittsburgh was one of only two areas to lose population (Abilene, TX was the other—how can a place be smart if people are leaving?); there were six other cities with median home prices lower than Pittsburgh ($105,040); and the one-year home price change in Pittsburgh (5.5%) was bested by two-thirds of the 50 places.
There is no doubt that Pittsburgh is affordable: but is it a smart place to invest in a home, where property tax rates are sky high? Is it smarter, for instance, to buy an average price home here and take the annual 5.5 percent growth in value as opposed to paying a little more somewhere else and having the home appreciate faster? It would seem the latter might be smarter, at least financially. But we can’t tell from the article.
And though the Kiplinger list gave points for economic vitality to “well-diversified economies that are good places to start or expand businesses”, there is nothing in the data that shows how Pittsburgh did on this measure. No data on what constitutes a “strong economy”, in their words, is present.
http://www.kiplinger.com/personalfinance/features/archives/2006/05/intro.html
