Augusta GA is the Most Affordable Metro Housing Market in the U.S.

Wow, check out this article that appeared in the Augusta Chronicle today!!

It seems the rest of the country is getting hip to something Augustans have known for years.

Bizjournals, the online division of American City Business Journals, named Augusta the nation's most affordable metro housing market after analyzing income and housing costs for 95 metro areas with populations of 500,000 or more.

Housing costs in the Augusta-Richmond County metro area, which includes Richmond, Columbia, Burke, McDuffie, Aiken and Edgefield counties, consume only 17.4 percent of monthly income, compared with 27 percent nationally, according to a March 5 Bizjournals article on the study.

"Compared to the rest of the world, (Augusta) is exceedingly cheap," said Ryan Brashear, the president of the Greater Augusta Association of Realtors. He said housing prices are likely a little higher now because the data used are from 2005. [more]