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Editorial
McCook ranks high in supply of affordable homes
Friday, November 15, 2013
Affordable housing has been an issue in McCook, but at least we're not Malibu!
Business and government have been working together to improve the housing situation in McCook, and they're making progress.
But we're already in pretty good shape when it comes to being able to buy the average four-bedroom, two-bathroom home, according to a survey by Coldwell Banker Real Estate.
While that home in Malibu will cost you a cool $2.155 million, you can buy the same accommodations in McCook for $107,986.
Malibu is the most expensive place in the country to buy such a home, Cleveland, Ohio, is the cheapest -- $63,729 -- and McCook is the 16th least expensive in the nation.
The average listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in the survey of more than 1,900 markets and 52,000 listings was $301,414.
California holds 13 of the top 25 spots for the most expensive markets in the U.S.
All top five of the most expensive markets are in The Golden State, with the two most expensive markets in the country located minutes from Los Angeles -- Malibu (No. 1) and Newport Beach (No. 2).
In contrast, 60 percent (15) of the 25 most affordable markets are in the Midwest.
New York is the only state that had markets ranked on both the most expensive and most affordable lists.
The real estate company's survey doesn't tell the whole story, of course. You could probably buy a very cheap home in Detroit, but the survey used only those markets where 10 4-bedroom, 2-bath homes were sold. Detroit didn't hit that threshold during the January to June sampling period Coldwell Banker used; most of the homes were too small.
The same goes for Beverly Hills, only in that case, the the homes were too large.
It's good that McCook is working on increasing the supply of affordable housing here, and that effort needs to continue.
We shouldn't lose sight, however, of the ongoing need to provide high enough wages -- and low enough taxes -- to make sure the average family can afford those homes.