A very prestigious organization has just called out two cities in our part of America for something positive. Both Columbia, Missouri and Springfield, Illinois were declared among the top 10 places to buy a home in America.

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This housing honor comes via The Wall Street Journal. This is their newly-updated housing index ratings for best and worst places to try and purchase a home. There are a multitude of factors that go into rankings like this, so I'd encourage you to read the original Wall Street Journal article for particulars. I'll give you the laymen's version of what this means.

With all the numbers crunched that go into what makes a good or bad housing market including median home prices, employment data and cost of living for an area, etc...both Columbia, Missouri and Springfield, Illinois were included in their top 10 housing markets in America.

I lived in Columbia about 37 years ago and do remember the apartment rentals were more affordable than expected. I would imagine home prices would be similar.

I've heard similar things said about Springfield, Illinois. I haven't lived in that area myself, but the Realtor and Zillow listings do seem to show a decent amount of relatively affordable homes which is a rarity these days.

For a capital city, Springfield does seem like a down-to-Earth place.

As opposed to other rather meaningless internet rankings, The Wall Street Journal list is a great one to be on. They're not amateurs when it comes to handling data and presenting it in an understandable way.

See a Columbia Place with a Heated Pool, Paddle Boats & Hot Tub

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