I was utterly floored by what I am about to post. As many of you know, I live in Phoenix, Arizona, which is one of the less expensive Western cities to live in. The median housing price here is around $225K the last I looked, but I find myself in a housing situation in which I pay my half of the mortgage every month - my half is $217.50, which is a very long and lucky story how I managed to pull that one off (plus my husband pays half my $217.50 at this point making the bill even less for me!).
So, my point? I was reading a magazine article recently and was amazed that there are two cities in Massachusetts (Springfield and Worcester) that have lower median housing prices. As do Providence, Rhode Island (where my family on my father's side started out years ago) and Philadelphia, PA. I may be in an incredibly lucky housing situation (and yes, I am) but Phoenix is not as cheap as I perceive it to be if you are fresh on the market here from somewhere else. Wow! That floored me as I lived through the housing crisis of the 80's and early 90's here when you could buy three bedrooms and two baths in a nice area for 55K. Those days are gone!!! Rob