For potential home buyers, the news is welcome. But for community developers, the reaction is mixed.
“It does not surprise me that the cost of living is considered low,” Shannon Meadows, Community Development director for the city of Springfield, said Thursday. “There’s definitely things that have driven down the cost of homes like the loss of population and the remaining housing.”
To counteract the over-saturation, the city has taken an aggressive stance on demolition of blighted and dangerous properties, Meadows said. “The good news is, we know it and we’re working on it.”
But low home prices in a market are not always a bad thing, Meadows said.
“I like to look at it positively because it’s a good place to raise and family and a good place to raise a family in a cost effective way,” Meadows said. “The more people that realize it’s a good place to call home, the brighter our future will be.”
After screening the housing index, Forbes took into account the cities’ cost of living from Moody’s Economy.com, violent crime rate from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and finally school quality from GreatSchools.org, according to the article.
Springfield also had a median income of $56,800 and an unemployment rate of 8.9 percent, a crime rate of 350 violent crimes per 100,000 people and had a GreatSchools.org rating of four at the time of the screening.
Springfield ranked behind Fairbanks, Alaska, and ahead of Wheeling, W.Va.-Ohio, and was among six other Midwest cities on the list that includes only 10 cities nationwide. “One message comes through loud and clear with this screen. The middle of the country is a better deal than the coasts,” the article states.
Sandusky claimed the top spot as the most affordable city in the nation.
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