Housing

The Cheapest Housing Market in America

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The just-released April S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index shows a very modest recovery in the housing market compared to March, a gain of 0.5%. From April of last year, prices rose 1.3% nationwide. (These are America’s most affordable housing markets.)
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Craig J. Lazzara, managing director at S&P DJI, commented, “The ongoing recovery in home prices is broadly based. Before seasonal adjustments, prices rose in all 20 cities in April (as they had also done in March).” The research covers the country’s 20 largest metros.

Another way Case-Shiller measures home prices begins with data from January 2000. All markets were given a value of 100 at that time. If a housing market has a price increase of 50%, its index would be 150.

In a sign of how much some home markets have risen in the past two decades, several cities currently have indexes over 400: Los Angeles at 405.47, Miami at 403.8 and San Diego at 401.9.


Some markets have home prices that have barely risen at all, given the 100 index in 2000. One has to also take into account inflation.


Detroit’s index is only 172.68. Why? Detroit’s population was 951,270. In 2022, the figure had fallen to 620,376. For the most part, the city is in ruins. Almost a third of the population lives below the poverty line. The personal and business tax base has been decimated.

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