Take Two

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Nice story from Yahoo! about affordable housing in the US.  Of the top 10 areas, four are in Ohio.  This is because our economy (save Columbus) is pretty much in the tank.  This is the brutal combination of incompetent government + high taxes + manufacturing based economy = high unemployment and declining property values.  Columbus has been a bit of an enigma along that line as its economy is very similar to Austin, Texas.  It’s the state capital (and all the requisite jobs that come with that), has a major state university (Go Bucks!) and a health business infrastructure (Nationwide, Limited Brands, OhioHealth, etc.) that was never dependent on manufacturing.  Yes, I dig central Ohio.

As a side note, the story mentions a couple in New York City wanting to find a place for around $450,000.  They got a one bedroom, 760 square foot apartment.  Something like this is available in the better suburbs of Columbus for the same price.