Pittsburgh is ranked the most affordable city in the United States

Is life in the overgrown apple getting you down?

According to a new study, the most affordable city in the country is only a half-day’s drive away — hours closer to the comforts of home than current hotspots popular with New Yorkers fleeing.

Say hello to — and maybe move to — Pittsburgh.

Currently boasting a median home price of $274,900, the former steel town remains cozy with its blue-collar roots, while also leaning into a unique artistic heritage—it’s the birthplace of Andy Warhol and the training ground for a young Keith Haring. , the home of Fred “Mister” Rogers and the backdrop of the gauzy ’80s teen dream, “Flashdance.”

According to Pittsburgh Planner, a website dedicated to helping potential newcomers understand the city, Some highlights From living in Perry Como’s house, Carnegie Mellon University and a chopped pork sandwich, it includes neighborhoods that are “walkable, dense and dynamic,” resulting in a “big city that lives like a small town.”

The surprising reference to the nation’s 25th unified metro area was published in the 2024 edition of the magazine Demographics of international housing affordability a report.

Produced jointly by the Chapman University Center for Demographics and Policy and the Frontier Center for Public Policy, this prestigious research paper assesses housing accessibility in 94 major urban areas across eight wealthy countries – Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand and Singapore. The United Kingdom and the United States.

But while a New Yorker might be surprised to see how far $2 million can take you in terms of housing, Pittsburgh is far from immune to the housing affordability issues facing most other cities in the United States, the report said. .

In fact, the study’s authors went so far as to classify Pittsburgh as a “somewhat unaffordable city.” “

The median home price listed is currently trending toward $300,000 at a rate of 4.9% year over year, according to Realtor.com.

The rise comes as the region, which has been known for shifting from steel to education, health care and technology in the past, struggles to move up again, according to Alan Berube, director of Brookings Metro at the Brookings Institution think tank.

For example, the metro area ranks at the bottom for overall job growth, Berube noted Pittsburgh Post-Gazette mentioned.

“The region’s leading research assets have not yet resulted in high-quality job creation and inclusive growth,” he said. “The full promise of Pittsburgh’s next economy…remains unrealized.”

Meanwhile, at the other end of the list, Gotham ranked 77th out of a list of 94 cities, but is still cheaper than other global heavyweights such as London, Toronto and Sydney.

Five US cities ranked in the top 10 on the list of shame – San Jose, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Honolulu.

The most expensive city in 2024, ranked 94th, is Hong Kong.

“The study has serious implications for the prospects for upward mobility. High housing prices, relative to income, have a distinctly feudal effect on our state of California, where the main victims are young people, minorities and immigrants,” said Joel Kotkin, director of the Chapman Center for Demographics and Policy.