More WNY Love - Rochester & Buffalo ranked in top 6 as most affordable cities in the world

[Big Turk]

 

WNY continues getting love over the last few years in pretty much every study and report that's come out...

Rochester ranked #2, Buffalo ranked #6 in most affordable cities in the world.

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/home-prices-affordable-cities-cheap-housing/

[boater]

I wish WNY had the job market to match this good news.

 

It's cheap to live here because no one makes any money. If you make more than $20 an hour, you are doing well for yourself. It's sad.

 

I ask my children to move here--they take one look at the job prospects and say no thank you.

[Tiberius]

I just drove through Youngstown, what a beautiful place! 

 

I love Western New York! 

[Big Turk]

3 hours ago, boater said:

I wish WNY had the job market to match this good news.

 

It's cheap to live here because no one makes any money. If you make more than $20 an hour, you are doing well for yourself. It's sad.

 

I ask my children to move here--they take one look at the job prospects and say no thank you.

 

This is not reality anymore. The job market has been improving steadily.

 

I live here and make well into 6 figures.

 

Your old beliefs that won't die from 30 years ago do not match up with any statistics that have shown what is actually happening here over the past several years.

 

In fact, one of the reasons that Zillow ranked Buffalo as the hottest housing market in the entire US in 2024 was BECAUSE of the job market and it's considerable improving conditions.

 

If people aren't making enough money it's likely because they are working dead end careers with no chance for advancement or careers not in demand. That's a choice.

Edited June 16 by Big Turk

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 hour ago, Big Turk said:

 

This is not reality anymore. The job market has been improving steadily.

 

I live here and make well into 6 figures.

 

Your old beliefs that won't die from 30 years ago do not match up with any statistics that have shown what is actually happening here over the past several years.

 

In fact, one of the reasons that Zillow ranked Buffalo as the hottest housing market in the entire US in 2024 was BECAUSE of the job market and it's considerable improving conditions.

 

If people aren't making enough money it's likely because they are working dead end careers with no chance for advancement or careers not in demand. That's a choice.

The world VERY much needs ditch diggers too. They deserve to be paid decent.

 

Just saying...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 17 by ExiledInIllinois

[Big Turk]

4 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

The world VERY much needs ditch diggers too. They deserve to be paid decent.

 

Just saying...

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you choose that career and KNOW the wage going into it, you don't really have a right to complain about it later.

 

You chose to take that job out of high school and roll the dice, not go to college, not pay student loans, not deal with the headaches of all of that.

 

I mean fast food workers are making $18+ an hour starting out now which is beyond ridiculous, I am pretty sure ditch diggers are earning more than what they are worth too 

Edited June 17 by Big Turk

[ExiledInIllinois]

Just now, Big Turk said:

 

If you choose that career and KNOW the wage going into it, you don't really have a right to complain about it later.

 

You chose to take that job out of high school and roll the dice, not go to college, not pay student loans, not deal with the headaches of all of that.

 

I mean fast food workers are making $18+ an hour starting out now which is beyond ridiculous, I am pretty sure ditch diggers are earning more than what they are worth too 

Sure they have a right to complain.

 

I am sure others making 6 figures are too.

 

Nobody is really making what they are worth.

 

 

The world can't sustain everyone with a high drive. So... It feasts on the low end labor.

[Big Turk]

16 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Sure they have a right to complain.

 

I am sure others making 6 figures are too.

 

Nobody is really making what they are worth.

 

 

The world can't sustain everyone with a high drive. So... It feasts on the low end labor.

 

People on welfare don't have much of a drive either and I'm sure they complain. But I guess they should get more money too?

[Augie]

17 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

 

If you choose that career and KNOW the wage going into it, you don't really have a right to complain about it later.

 

You chose to take that job out of high school and roll the dice, not go to college, not pay student loans, not deal with the headaches of all of that.

 

I mean fast food workers are making $18+ an hour starting out now which is beyond ridiculous, I am pretty sure ditch diggers are earning more than what they are worth too 

 

The world is changing. The advent of AI is going to eliminate all kinds of things, most of which I can’t even imagine. 

 

People who can weld or plumb a house will be more valuable. 

[Big Turk]

15 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

The world is changing. The advent of AI is going to eliminate all kinds of things, most of which I can’t even imagine. 

 

People who can weld or plumb a house will be more valuable. 

 

It's been greatly overstated. Mostly it will eliminate low level stuff like people who write documentation or do basic tasks like translation services, etc.

 

People want to believe that suddenly in 5 years everything will be AI and all the software engineers will suddenly be out of a job.

 

I use AI everyday in the form of GitHub Co-Pilot while writing code. It's valuable. But let's be real. It's not putting me out of a job anytime soon, if ever. It's very good at generalized tasks but not very good at complex ones, often sending you on wild goose chases for hours if you let it.

 

Effectively I explain it like this. If you were using it as GPS, it would be great at getting you from Buffalo to Seattle by giving you generalized directions on what exits to take and what interstates to use. Once you get to Seattle it's not very useful at all at getting you to places within the city and you'd be driving around in circles for hours getting lost.

 

More accurately, you could say that the developers who are using AI will replace the ones who aren't. Now THAT is likely accurate and has already started occuring as AI has helped developers become more efficient in what they do.

 

Remember when robotic technology was going to replace every factory worker 25 years ago? How'd that turn out? Sure it replaced the most basic jobs and requires fewer employees now, but it is never going to fully replace humans. AI is very similar to this. Don't buy into the sensationalized hype of people who have no idea what's going on and don't actually work in the industry.

Edited June 17 by Big Turk

[Augie]

10 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

 

It's been greatly overstated. Mostly it will eliminate low level stuff like people who write documentation or do basic tasks like translation services, etc.

 

People want to believe that suddenly in 5 years everything will be AI and all the software engineers will suddenly be out of a job.

 

I use AI everyday in the form of GitHub Co-Pilot while writing code. It's valuable. But let's be real. It's not putting me out of a job anytime soon, if ever. It's very good at generalized tasks but not very good at complex ones, often sending you on wild goose chases for hours if you let it.

 

Effectively I explain it like this. If you were using it as GPS, it would be great at getting you from Buffalo to Seattle by giving you generalized directions on what exits to take and what interstates to use. Once you get to Seattle it's not very useful at all at getting you to places within the city and you'd be driving around in circles for hours getting lost.

 

More accurately, you could say that the developers who are using AI will replace the ones who aren't. Now THAT is likely accurate and has already started occuring as AI has helped developers become more efficient in what they do.

 

Remember when robotic technology was going to replace every factory worker 25 years ago? How'd that turn out? Sure it replaced the most basic jobs and requires fewer employees now, but it is never going to fully replace humans. AI is very similar to this. Don't buy into the sensationalized hype of people who have no idea what's going on and don't actually work in the industry.

 

Now….today…..what will my grandchildren see? 

[Big Turk]

14 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

Now….today…..what will my grandchildren see? 

 

Probably not as different as you might think. There are some severe limitations of what AI can do in software engineering without human intervention.

 

It can build fully functioning programs on its own that have no basis in any reality of what it actually needs to do. The type of things that humans are very good at ascertaining and understanding context is something that is very difficult for them to get AI to be good at and that's not likely to change all that much.

Edited June 17 by Big Turk

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 hour ago, Big Turk said:

 

People on welfare don't have much of a drive either and I'm sure they complain. But I guess they should get more money too?

Depends. But yes.

[Big Turk]

8 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Depends. But yes.

 

Cool...well, you can pay those extra tax dollars for them sitting on their ass doing nothing, I already pay far too much.

[ExiledInIllinois]

56 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

 

Cool...well, you can pay those extra tax dollars for them sitting on their ass doing nothing, I already pay far too much.

An illusion.

 

No you don't.  You pay way too much on other things, like military, health, and Social Security. 

 

Social/Corporate welfare (economic security) is only 8% of the budget:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 17 by ExiledInIllinois

[PetermansRedemption]

I’m not sure this holds anymore. Back 15 years ago when you could get a house in Tonawanda for 87k, sure. Now that same house is 250k and has the property taxes to match. If you don’t care where you live, then I’m sure Buffalo has affordable spots. But go into any decent neighborhood anymore and it isn’t very affordable. Once you factor in property taxes, you can find the same house elsewhere. Taking simple home price of XXX dollars you come out with a far different picture. But not everyone has massive property tax exemptions and pays in cash. 

[Draconator]

Rochester, New York. Come for the Art Museum, stay for the crime. 

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 hour ago, PetermansRedemption said:

I’m not sure this holds anymore. Back 15 years ago when you could get a house in Tonawanda for 87k, sure. Now that same house is 250k and has the property taxes to match. If you don’t care where you live, then I’m sure Buffalo has affordable spots. But go into any decent neighborhood anymore and it isn’t very affordable. Once you factor in property taxes, you can find the same house elsewhere. Taking simple home price of XXX dollars you come out with a far different picture. But not everyone has massive property tax exemptions and pays in cash. 

Bull... It isn't because of taxes.

 

And those "affordable spots" in BFLo are picking up a bigger burden of the tax bill:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/opinion/sunday/property-taxes-housing-assessment-inequality.html

 

 

[Big Turk]

7 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

An illusion.

 

No you don't.  You pay way too much on other things, like military, health, and Social Security. 

 

Social/Corporate welfare (economic security) is only 8% of the budget:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's 8% too much.

3 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Bull... It isn't because of taxes.

 

And those "affordable spots" in BFLo are picking up a bigger burden of the tax bill:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/opinion/sunday/property-taxes-housing-assessment-inequality.html

 

 

 

If you think our property taxes are high, check out the insurance rates down in Florida.  They are almost 5x the National Average at 11K a year. Within a decade, people will be paying more for their house insurance premiums a month than their mortgages as insurers continue to leave in droves and refuse to insure anyone there. In fact, the six most expensive places in the US to insure a house are in Florida.

 

They talk up their no state income tax, but this pretty much eats it all up and then some. Even when factoring in paying the NYS income tax, NYS property taxes AND my house insurance combined, I'm still paying a few K less a year than just the house insurance costs down there. That's not even factoring other cost of living expenses that are far higher down there than in WNY.

 

 

Edited June 17 by Big Turk

[boyst]

el oh el.

it's NY. hell no. anyone considering moving there from another state must be getting some sweet compensation. the "oh, it's 6 figures" is not anything to be proud of anymore. it's just six figures. it doesn't buy what it did just 6 years ago, probably even 2 or 3.

 

hard pass. and stay out of the Carolina's. we are full.