Albany housing market: slow and steady
This chart tracks the last 10 years of Zillow's home value index.
The Albany metro area is one of the five best places to buy a home, according to Zillow. A rep for the real estate info site told Good Morning America that Albany is "a good value." And it's a solid market because of government and higher education jobs.
That steadiness might not have looked so great earlier this decade when home values were surging in other parts of the country. But as you can see from the chart above, slow and steady seems to have worked out OK.
For a little bit of perspective, we pulled the numbers on home values from the last 10 years for a handful of metro areas from Zillow and compared them to Albany. The results -- in a big graph -- after the jump.
(scroll up for the graph)
We picked Madison, Wisconsin because it's a state capital and college town. Phoenix is on the list because its boom-and-bust market has pretty much been the opposite of Albany. And we picked Austin because in a lot of ways it's Albany's arch-nemisis aspiration.
The chart tracks Zillow's home value index, which is based on its "Zestimate" calculation.
As of today, Zillow had the Albany metro area's home values down 2.2 percent over the last year.
All data from Zillow
[via CBS6]
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Comments
That information puts things in perspective. Being a "native" Texan, I always thought the cost of living was more up here, but the housing market shows they're pretty close. Now, granted what you get here for $250K is a house with a modest yard (maybe if you're lucky get a little more property). In Texas that $250K could potentially buy a ranch :) OK, maybe not that big, but the land is cheaper there because, well Texas is freaking HUGE! And I'm no Billy Fuccillo!
... said Kari on Aug 13, 2009 at 3:56 PM | link
There is one word that makes affordability go out the window, and that is TAXES
We're off the chart nationally, and we don't get crap for our money.
Other than that, it's all good.
... said Jaye Bruné (OK, it's me, Joe Bruno :) on Aug 14, 2009 at 1:32 AM | link
'm a native northeasterner who lived in Madison before moving to Albany. Madison has great public services, mostly uncorrupt government, beautiful waterfronts (not separated from the city by a mass of highway), wonderful produce, lots of bookstores, a respect for bicyclists. But when I moved here, Albany had the great advantage of being significantly more affordable, even with the taxes. According to the graph, the difference is much smaller now. Sigh.
... said Susan on Aug 18, 2009 at 11:13 PM | link