Rochester NY named most livable bargain market

2011 MSN Real Estate Most Livable Bargain Markets

1. Rochester, N.Y.

Rochester provides a lot of bang for your buck. It has big-city culture, a highly educated population, picturesque scenery, affordable housing and an expanding high-tech job base.

The city of Rochester anchors a 90-mile stretch of Lake Ontario shoreline, which serves as its northern border. Affluent suburbs Pittsford to the south and Webster along the shore are populated with workers from companies such as Kodak, Bausch & Lomb and Xerox.

Although it lost many jobs to the Sunbelt in the past few decades, it has now diversified its economy and is adding jobs in health care, food and beverage manufacturing and technology, including alternative energy, as well as in higher education.

"It's not any one thing growing the economy now; it's all of these things," says Mark Peterson, CEO of the Greater Rochester Enterprise, an economic-development organization.

Indeed, the Brooking Institution's MetroMonitor ranked Rochester among the 10 strongest performing metros in the recovery.

Small to midsize technology firms are locating here in part because of the universities, including the Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester, which provide a highly educated work force.

And there is increasingly more for graduates to do, with the city pouring $1 billion into revitalizing its downtown in the next three years.

There's also the Finger Lakes to the south of Rochester for recreation and wine tasting, and trails for hikers and bikers, including the towpath of the Erie Canal.

It has some of the cleanest air in the country, and a high concentration of physicians and specialists, thanks to the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

There's likely no road-rage epidemic here, as commutes are blissfully short, compared to other cities.

"I have a 12-minute commute to my downtown office," Peterson says. "You can work a full day here and still make it home for the soccer game and home for dinner."

Cons: High state income and property taxes, an aging population in some suburbs and cold winters.

• Population: 1.02 million
• Affordability index: 2.2
• Unemployment: 7.72%
• Job growth: -0.9%
• Median home price: $115,700
• Cost-of-living index: 90.8
• Median household income: $52,600
• Average commute time: 22.8 minutes
• Commutes longer than an hour: 3.27%