The city of Syracuse has been named the ninth-most affordable city to live in the U.S. by the real estate website Trulia.

The website ranked the top 10 most affordable cities across the country based on housing, commuting and utilities costs. Trulia also took into account mortgage payments, property taxes and insurance rates in all of these places.

The rankings also assumed a 30-year-fixed interest rate loan at 4 percent interest, according to a Sept. 16 Syracuse.com article. In Syracuse, around one-third of the middle-class’ income is spent on these three initial criteria.

“It’s a combination of factors,” Patrick O’Connor, a real estate agent for Central New York Homes, said. “(In Syracuse) the housing market has been stable throughout the years, there hasn’t been a tremendous growth in the job market and the city itself is just starting to recover from the economic depression.”

 

One of the major reasons Syracuse enjoys such affordable housing is the region itself.

“It’s an area that’s not growing very fast, not attracting a lot of flow, not pushing demand very high,” John Yinger, a professor of public administration and economics at Syracuse University, said.

Syracuse also has a big housing stock relative to its population, which keeps housing costs low. In addition, Syracuse’s roadways are relatively decongested, which in turn drives down commuting rates, Yinger said.

Though Syracuse has one of the lowest rates of monthly income spent on housing and commuting — about 20 percent — it has one of the highest rates spent on utilities, at about 4 percent. This can be attributed the extreme cold weather, which drives up utility bills, according to a Sept. 16 CNN article.

Furthermore, property taxes have a huge impact on which areas have the most affordable housing. Different property taxes in certain areas can completely skew the ranking process, O’Connor said.

“In the south, housing prices are more expensive but taxes are lower,” O’Connor said. “And vice versa for the north.”

Each housing market is completely local. Therefore, it would disadvantageous to not take into account taxation on properties, O’Connor said.

Akron, Ohio ranked first on Trulia’s list, and it’s not alone in the Midwest — a majority of the country’s most affordable cities are in either Ohio or Missouri. Syracuse is the only East Coast city to make the list.

“Most East Coast cities are places that have different flows and growth,” Yinger said, giving the example of New York City. “Most East Coast cities are bigger, and bigger cities have higher prices.”

Coastal cities tend to be much less affordable than cities that fall in the middle of the country; California contains seven of the 10 least affordable cities on the list. Nonetheless, Yinger said he was surprised that some of Syracuse’s neighbors, such as Buffalo or Rochester, didn’t make the list.

“They aren’t too different from Syracuse, in terms of housing,” Yinger said.

Published on September 22, 2015 at 9:45 pm

Contact Hanna: hrhorvat@syr.edu