[Ache]

These struggling metros have a combination of high unemployment, steep cost of living and low median income.

A new study by Yahoo! News says it hard to get by in Buffalo, New York.

The website looked at struggling metros that have a combination of high unemployment, steep cost of living and low median income.

Buffalo is number five on the list. Providence, Rhode Island is number one, followed by Los Angeles; Riverside, California and Tampa, Florida.

Top 5 U.S. Cities Where It's Hardest To Get By

1. Providence, R.I.
(Providence-Fall River-Warwick, R.I.-Mass., metro area)
Population: 1.6 million
Cost of Living Index: 122
Median Income: $54,064
February 2009 Unemployment Rate: 11.6%

2. Los Angeles, Calif.
(Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif., metro area)
Population: 12.9 million
Cost of Living Index: 148
Median Income: $56,680
February 2009 Unemployment Rate: 10.2%

3. Riverside, Calif.
(Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., metro area)
Population: 4.1 million
Cost of Living Index: 120
Median Income: $54,991
February 2009 Unemployment Rate: 12.2%

4. Tampa, Fla.
(Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla., metro area)
Population: 2.7 million
Cost of Living Index: 96
Median Income: $45,243
February 2009 Unemployment Rate: 10.2%

5. Buffalo, N.Y.
(Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y., metro area)
Population: 1.1 million
Cost of Living Index: 96
Median Income: $44,747
February 2009 Unemployment Rate: 9.6%

Click here to see the full list of U.S. Cities Where It's Hardest To Get By

[MarkJ]

Seems like housing in Buffalo should be dirt cheap with so many vacant properties and the massive population loss.

SPECIAL REPORT: ABANDONED HOMES
Neglected homes and vacant lots leave Buffalo residents angry

A Buffalo News analysis of property, census and other records found:

• One out of every 12 or 13 properties in Buffalo — a total of 7,000 to 8,000 — will soon be owned by City Hall, making it Buffalo’s biggest landowner by far.

• Thirty-five percent of the streets in Buffalo have at least one city-owned vacant lot or house.

• Buffalo’s vacant housing rate is the highest in New York and trails only Detroit and New Orleans among the 100 largest cities in the nation.

• The vacant housing problem is spreading into Black Rock-Riverside and the city’s first-ring suburbs.

• Crime is one of the by products of vacant housing. Six out of every 10 arsons in the city last year occured at abandoned buildings. They also act as a popular dumping ground for dead bodies — seven in 2 years — many of them murder victims.

Crisis explodes

Buffalo’s housing crisis, the result of 50 years of population loss, has rapidly accelerated in recent years. The city is now a community where 23 percent of the housing units are vacant, according to a 2006 census estimate.

That translates into about 18,000 houses, or about one of every five properties in the city. The lion’s share are on the East Side and West Side.

The crisis is so big, so widespread, experts say, it may represent the single biggest challenge facing Buffalo’s neighborhoods.

“This is a big one,” said Kathryn A. Foster, director of the University at Buffalo’s Regional Institute. “It’s fair to say the vacant housing issue is a tremendous test for the city.”

And one of the reasons why is because the crisis is spreading, quickly.

“Two-thirds of our city is under grave threat,” said Aaron Bartley, director of People United for Sustainable Housing, or PUSH, a grass-roots group working to rebuild the West Side.

Bartley’s gloomy assessment is backed up by new figures from the U. S. Postal Service, which tracks the number of vacant homes where mail is “undeliverable.”

Late last year, the agency identified 18,411 addresses in the city where mail is no longer picked up.

Even worse, the Postal Service data suggests the city’s housing crisis is expanding into Black Rock and Riverside and into first-ring suburbs like Cheektowaga.

“It’s almost like a virus,” said Priscilla Almodovar, New York State’s top affordable-housing official.

In just six years, the city’s vacancy rate increased by 45 percent. And that was during a period when the city demolished at least 2,000 homes.

The owners of these vacant properties vary, but none owns more than the city itself.

By the end of this year, the city will own an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 properties, maybe more. About 60 percent of them are vacant lots.

The city’s property ownership is so great, there are now 44 city streets where City Hall owns more than 20 percent of the properties.

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/385917.html