New York State Ranks Dead Last for Affordability

While Central New York is relatively affordable as far as housing prices go, a recent report from USA Today Homefront has the Empire State ranked dead last in the rankings when it comes to overall affordability.

The report took an in depth look at each and every state in the union. The team from USA Today used a number of factors to make their determination stating,

We analyzed median incomes and five basic expenses: homeownership costs, groceries, health care, income tax and gasoline. We defined affordability by looking at expenses as a percentage of the respective state’s median income.

Property Values and Prices in CNY vs. The Rest of the Country

While Central New York property values are considerably lower than those across the country, or even other parts of the state, other factors contribute to this abysmal ranking. To give some perspective the average price for a home in the Mohawk Valley region falls somewhere between $200,000 and $250,000. Nationally, the average home price is in the $450,000 range.

Nonetheless according to the key findings of the USA Today Homefront report, "New York is the least affordable state, where residents will spend 78.7% of their income on basics and have $16,913 of their median annual income left over." It's basically the lack of disposable income after paying for things like groceries and gas that can be crippling.

The Most Affordable vs. New York State

Utah actually topped the list as the most affordable state to live in. You can see the top 5 and bottom 5 on the chart below, courtesy of USA Today Homefront via the U.S. Census Bureau.

While the Mohawk Valley is a beautiful place to live and a great place to raise a family, it does have its downfalls. It is very likely that the New York City situation greatly skews the results of this report and doesn't really account for all that we have going on Upstate. There is no question though with inflation still at historic highs, budgets are a little tighter than people are likely comfortable with.