Head South For Affordable, Growing Suburbs
Relocating to a Southern state won’t make you a true Southerner - but between the job prospects, the warm weather, and the sweet housing deals, it might just make you a happier person.
Got a Georgia mortgage on your mind?
Or a home loan in Arkansas, perhaps?
You wouldn’t be the first.
From 2000-2006, home mortgage seekers flocked to the region as the South added 8.5 million new residents, boosting its total population by 8.5 percent, compared with 2 percent population growth in the Northeast and just 3 percent in the Midwest.
New births and immigration account for some of the recent population boom, but many people have also made the move South for extra space, better weather, cheaper home loans, and new jobs.
The South is a vast and varied region, stretching from the oil reserves of Texas and Florida’s resorts and beaches to the booming business centers of the Carolinas and Virginia.
The region’s housing market differs, too.
Florida mortgage costs are out of control and the state is now struggling after years of unsustainable growth, though it still retains the third-largest market for luxury homes.
One of the primary reasons for this growth is that over the past two decades, the U.S.’s economic centers have shifted away from Midwestern cities like Detroit and Cleveland to cities such as Atlanta, Charlotte and Dallas.
Everywhere, banks, mortgage lenders, automobile plants, and research parks have sprung up here, and as companies relocate to the area, they bring with them young employees.
Florida was always a popular place to retire, and it still is.
Now the Carolinas, with their milder climate and scenic mountains and beaches, have also become hot destinations for retirees.
Locals call them the “half-backers” - Northerners who move to Florida and half the way back again. Another draw for the over-50 crowd? Many of their adult children have already moved to the state for job reasons.
“I talked to some folks today who are moving here because that’s where the grandkids are,” says Mike Jaquish, a Realtor with Keller Williams Realty in Cary, N.C. and a town resident.
And for the average American family? Southern states have more than a few affordable, safe neighborhoods near big cities with good schools and friendly neighbors.
The Best Affordable Suburbs on our list have an average cost-of-living index of 97 [just below the national average of 100], and half of the suburbs have median home prices below $288,100.
In all but two towns, school test scores are above the state averages, and the average violent crime index is just 58 [vs. U.S. average of 100].
In the South’s largest metro area, in the second-biggest state in the U.S., about a 15-minute drive from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, lies the small city of Flower Mound, Tex.
Flower Mound, a cheap Texas mortgage destination, shares a zip code with nearby Lewisville, but the former is the more desirable area to live, according to Dottie Curry, a Realtor with Re/Max in the area.
Lewisville is older and more industrial, while strict commercial zoning laws in Flower Mound keep the community quiet and mostly residential.
“[The citizens of Flower Mound] have been very careful not to let the builders come in and ruin their town,” says Curry.
Many residents of Flower Mound and Lewisville work at the airport, or in nearby downtown Dallas, which is about a 30-minute drive away.
Texas Instruments and ExxonMobil are headquartered here. Others commute to the northern suburb of Plano, the home base of companies such as JC Penney and Countrywide Mortgage.
Continue reading this article on MSNBC.com …