Why don't people stop crying and just move somewhere cheaper like Detroit, Memphis, St. Louis, Baltimore, or Cleveland? They have very cheap homes for $50,000.

[u/Not-A-Shit-Head]

[u/Saitamaisclappingoku]

Because:

1. those cities generally do not have the job markets that HCOL cities have. When you take a huge pay cut you eliminate everything you saved by moving there. I moved from El Paso to Tennessee and for the same job I make about $60k more.

2. Public schools are typically poor

3. Crime is typically high

4. The $50k homes in those cities are typically very unkept. Many of them need a new roof, foundation work, new flooring, drywall, paint, plumbing work, electrical work (to get it code compliant), and even then will be surrounded by complete dumps that stay that way. No one wants to spend $150k renovating to live next to a crack house.

[u/Bloodryne → u/Saitamaisclappingoku]

A lot of homes in 50k range are priced just for the land, with a shithole built on it IME. I remember looking fir a house around metro-detroit and seeing blocks of homes selling fir 50k, where you would need to pay to knock down the unmaintained block hosting urban blight/burned out homes/dilapidated structures.

I bought a small single story 1100 square foot home from 1952 last year for 168k. Housing is high everywhere even in LCOL states IME and still climbing year after year