https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 24 Apr 2026 23:03:20 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514891 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 13:13:51 +0000 Mrs. High Heels 2514891@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>No. We live in SoCal, and I'd say the only two places less affordable than here are NYC and SF. While home prices are high, I think salaries and job opportunities are pretty great too. I also think our labor and food is more affordable compared to what you can get elsewhere. When hiring people for cleaning, gardening, painting, etc. it seems cheaper here than it would be in other states (just based on conversations with out of state friends). Or even doing something like getting a manicure/pedicure! I think in general, the food is cheaper here too because there is high competition and lots of good food. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514784 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 12:14:34 +0000 sera_87 2514784@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lamariniere: I'm interested to hear how much you pay! I think you and I are the lowest I've ever heard of. :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514778 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 12:11:55 +0000 sera_87 2514778@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Not really. Which is why I moved across the river - super super affordable with better family friendly policies.</p> <p>The rent I pay now for a 3 bed condo style apartment with my own laundry etc, is what I'd pay in Ottawa for a bachelor (in a good area of town) or a 1 bedroom (not so good) in a highrise with shared laundry. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514722 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 11:29:51 +0000 Mrs. Jump Rope 2514722@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>What are we basing this on?</p> <p>We live in Pittsburgh and just bought a new home. </p> <p>My brother lives in Raleigh, and his house is the same price as ours. Ours needs upgrades &amp; our taxes are 4x his. </p> <p>I guess that's expensive? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514708 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 11:17:53 +0000 HazelEyes 2514708@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I"m going with no. I live outside DC and it amazes me how much housing costs here. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514700 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 11:10:46 +0000 Mamaof2 2514700@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>yes very afforadble!!</p> <p>Our 3400 sq foot house cost the same as our 2 bedroom condo in Alexandria VA did! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514698 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 11:08:15 +0000 catlady 2514698@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Another Bostonian here (Cambridge). No, I'd say it is not affordable. We had to go up to the very top of our budget to afford a 2 bedroom a few years ago. The prices have gone up almost 50% since then, which will be great when we sell, but all the bigger houses have gone up even more so it's going to be hard to find something in our budget when we move. If we move to the suburbs, one or both of us will have a crappy commute. Childcare is also extremely expensive here. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514687 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 11:01:44 +0000 petunia354 2514687@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Not really. We definitely had to sacrifice space and lot size to get into the town we wanted in CT. It has great schools and a great downtown/town center area though so it was worth it to us. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514678 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 10:59:25 +0000 psw27 2514678@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm another Bostonian and I would say no, it is not affordable. Salaries are higher but they are not "that" much higher to make up for the housing and rent costs in the city. I want to sell it all and move south. (especially with today's snowy weather) </p> <p>@Foodnerd81: our neighborhood is blowing up! I was shocked to see how many $700K+ 2 bedrooms there are on the market. Good for resale, but yes, tough for relocating anywhere around the city! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514671 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 10:53:15 +0000 Autumnmama79 2514671@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Extremely unaffordable. But having grown up in this city, and considering all it has to offer, its nearly impossible to consider living somewhere else at this point. (Vancouver, BC) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514663 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 10:45:40 +0000 skipra 2514663@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>What exactly is affordable? It seem so subjective. We live within 15 miles of Boston and for the area I think our town is affordable. Median home price in 2013 (when we bought) was around $450K which was about half of the median price of the city where our old condo was located. So for our area, yes it is pretty affordable but I don't know if half a million for a house is really affordable in general! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable/page/2#post-2514633 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 10:16:50 +0000 ShootingStar 2514633@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I live in a small suburb about 45 minutes north of Boston. For the general area the cost of housing is lower. To be in one of the towns close to where we work our house would probably cost 2-3x as much, and we'd never get the lot size that we have here. But in general, MA is super expensive. We have long commutes, daycare is astronomical, and even for the price we pay our schools are kinda meh. Living in a great school district generally means million dollar houses.</p> <p>We're getting pretty tired of this area due to the crappy weather and the costs, and our plan right now is to move to FL in about 3 years. The COL is much lower in the city we're looking to move to, and we'll be close to my parents. Hopefully we can both find jobs in that area. We work in tech and I'm fairly specialized in what I do. I know I'll never make the same money I make here, but I'm hoping the trade-offs are worth it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514628 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 10:14:41 +0000 anonysquire 2514628@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't have much to compare it to except my in laws houses in California, and yes.... Way more affordable than California. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514622 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 10:09:49 +0000 MoonMoon 2514622@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Housing prices are dirt cheap in our city. One of the lowest in the country. Gas is fairly cheap too. But property taxes and other taxes are higher than average. Food can be expensive too, like if I compare fresh produce costs to CA. But overall yes, COL is way below average here. I'd blush to mention the price of houses in our neighborhood! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514617 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 10:06:09 +0000 lioneyes 2514617@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>i live downtown in a major east coast city, and after moving here from NYC, i think it's affordable. but, i know in the bigger picture, it's becoming much more expensive. the real estate rental market is very $$$, and the sales market is getting up there. i think salaries are good here, maybe not quite at NYC level in comparable fields, but we also don't have that stratospherically paid group of finance people to buy the 5million+ homes. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514598 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 09:49:45 +0000 cascademom 2514598@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'd say so so on the affordable scale. We moved from a Chicago neighborhood to a northern suburb. Our suburb is deemed "affluent." We bought a decent size house in line with the market in a fantastic subdivision (small yard, but parks built into the subdivision similar to the city). In terms of housing prices and taxes, it's a bit high. We're spared Rahm Emanuel, Chicago taxes, and CPS in favor of higher taxes and a great school district.</p> <p>In Chicago, we were getting priced out of our neighborhood. We couldn't afford to buy a single family home without spending a lot for a small property. We made the choice to move out of the city instead of dealing with these headaches. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514581 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 09:36:43 +0000 Pancakes 2514581@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Not very affordable. I love our city and super love our neighborhood, but it's very expensive. We are moving soon to another city in our state and home prices there are dirt cheap compared to our current city. The price of a large SF home in our new city is equivalent to the price of a 1 BR condo in our current neighborhood. That being said, there is so much right at our fingertips in our current city, so in some ways I feel like it's worth it to pay the HCOL in this area. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514575 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 09:31:21 +0000 ocean81 2514575@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Not really. I desperately want to move out of the city (Boston) but the towns I want to live in are really expensive and on top of that, the commute will stink for DH. Only good thing is that the prices are soaring where we currently live, so that will work out for us when we are ready to move and can rent out our house. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514570 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 09:27:32 +0000 Tidybee 2514570@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LuLu Mom: I foten wonder if the wage difference is that accurate. I and several family members either have or currently worked in NYC...and I know several people in the same fields in different areas (mainly Philadelphia suburbs) who makes very similar salaries.<br /> As for me, no, I don't consider our area to be affordable. It's a NYC suburb and if you don't have 6-700K, you really can't touch anything more than a condo or a real fixer upper. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514569 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 09:25:33 +0000 travellingbee 2514569@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Right in the city? Pretty expensive. Suburbs? Very affordable and you get a lot for your money. When I first moved here even the inner loop was affordable. Now it's gone a little crazy. We live in a nice area, in the city, and were really lucky to get in here before the market exploded. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514563 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 09:20:41 +0000 winniebee 2514563@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Well, we live in Maine. You'd think it would be affordable. But we happen to live in a coastal town and real estate is really expensive for the area. Dining out also very expensive. Wages I don't think are higher than other affluent areas. Not sure how else we measure affordability. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514506 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 08:55:21 +0000 jedeve 2514506@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Bao: agree. Our east coast family assumes because I live in the rural Rocky Mountains everything is dirt cheap. But really the COL is one percent less than the national average, whereas incomes are about 30% less. The average home costs something like 180-200k here, but that will get you a small ranch house drastically in need of repair. That's just what the average home is. When my husband and I first lived here, he was making as much as a lawyer as my sister in DC was making as an assistant. And he had a family to support! They would talk about how cheap beer is here, but if beer is one of your main factors in COL then you're doing okay. ;-)</p> <p>And also other things are waaaay more expensive here. Air travel back to the east coast is more expensive than an east coaster to fly to Europe. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514505 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 08:54:09 +0000 ModernDayJibarita 2514505@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Cincinnati is very affordable overall but the increased interest in living in an urban environment + the cities effort to revitalize these areas has skyrocketed the prices in the downtown/OTR area (compared to the rest of the city; the suburbs are still very affordable) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514503 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 08:53:57 +0000 BKCaribBaby 2514503@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Nope. Another NYer here. </p> <p>What I find absent in all of these conversation about affordability is that fact that people's wages in the U.S. have not kept up with the cost of things such as housing, health care and education. I think those issues need to be addressed to truly understand why things are not "affordable" anymore. I actually working the world of affordable housing and finding an "affordable" place to live is actually a national problem and not just in the big cities. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514496 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 08:49:46 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 2514496@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We'll see how our new city stacks up to where we currently live. So far to get the house we want we had to pay more, but we're also getting a larger home. We save on home insurance though. From what I have priced so far daycare is more expensive there than here, but the trade off is the 4:1 ratio there is not standard as it is here. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514495 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 08:47:37 +0000 snowjewelz 2514495@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Not really. I'm in NY suburb too. Housing and property taxes are definitely killers here. We can only afford to live in this town b/c we bought a fixer upper a few years ago, plus DH's occupation made us eligible for significant tax reductions. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514494 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 08:46:49 +0000 LuLu Mom 2514494@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I live in a smaller town/city in the Midwest, compared to the big cities it is affordable our cost of living is less, however our wages are reflective of that as well. We don't make as much as those in metro areas. I think it is all relative. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514472 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 08:31:56 +0000 Happygal 2514472@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Compared to surrounding areas, the cost of housing is pretty high. Our realtor told us clients often go through the stages of grief when looking to buy homes. Childcare eats a big chunk into the budget as well, but that seems to be true in lots of places! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514454 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 08:10:46 +0000 yoursilverlining 2514454@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don’t think it’s generally affordable based on the average income for our area – it’s affordable if you live pretty rurally or buy an older (and I mean 1800’s older, not like 1950’s older) home in need of TLC, but housing prices are not IMO affordable for decent condition homes in the stretch of city/burbs we want to live in. </p> <p>Then again, it’s pretty reasonable compared to many areas, so affordability is totally relative and personal I guess.</p> <p>One of the top reasons my parents wanted to move out of Seattle in the late 90’s was affordability, so this issue has been going on a long time. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-your-citytown-affordable#post-2514356 Mon, 04 Apr 2016 06:24:00 +0000 looch 2514356@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am not really sure how to answer, is it based on housing costs? In general, I feel like it's not affordable when you look at things outside of housing. Food is expensive, going out to eat is expensive, home repair is expensive, private school is expensive...I can go on and on. </p>