Grand Rapids Makes ANOTHER Best Of List!

Here we go again! Now Grand Rapids is "5th in the nation as an affordable place to buy a house, according to CNNMONEY, an online magazine that also included other Midwest cities such as Indianapolis, Ind., Cincinnati, Ohio and Akron, Ohio. I'm still wondering when the population explosion will happen. With all the press our fair city has received in the past few months, I'm positive people will be beating down our doors to move here!

The magazine has this to say about Grand Rapids.

"As in many once-booming Midwestern cities, Grand Rapids was built up during an era of prosperity and high population growth. Now it's left with a large inventory of fine, old houses that are weighing on home prices. In addition, several local non-profits are working to save area neighborhoods by renovating older homes and renting them out or reselling them, said Kara Wood, the city's director of economic development.

With population growth slowing over the past few decades -- the metro-area population grew at about half the national rate over the past 10 years -- there's more than enough homes to meet buyer demand. Meanwhile, the city's economic base, which once relied heavily on the furniture-making industry, has become more diversified. Health care is now a driving force in the local economy, said Wood.

And there are plenty of good-paying jobs. Spectrum Health, which runs several hospitals in the area, employs more than 16,000 local residents, plus 1,500 physicians."

Thanks to MLive for seeing this. "Report ranks Grand Rapids 5th among affordable housing markets in the U.S."