Anyone arriving in Wanganui would be gob-smacked at how inexpensive the housing is.
I was.
Those escaping the tyranny of Auckland house prices and most other cities around New Zealand could sell there, buy a nice home here and have change in their pocket.
People in Wanganui can live like kings - and queens - for the cost of a very small, ordinary home in some metropolitan parts of the country.
As the Property Brokers' man said, a $150,000 home in Wanganui would be at the half-million mark in Auckland.
The study showed it took a smidgen under 16 per cent of a young person's income to get into lower-priced property here. On Auckland's North Shore it took 97 per cent of their pay for a lower-priced house.
It's one of the features of the city that needs emphasising. New Zealanders still like to own their own home and they have more chance of achieving that here than most other places. It means parents can get their children into homes much more easily.
The Multicultural Council of Rangitikei/Whanganui made the same point this week when it spoke of what migrants were looking for. High on the list is good housing, which means both cheap and good quality. The council was also looking to attract business migrants here and again, good housing at a reasonable price could be of big benefit to companies looking at starting up or moving here. Presumably home affordability also translates into attractively priced green field sites for industry.
Of course cheap housing - relatively - doesn't necessarily translate into good housing. A look around the suburbs shows many of Wanganui's cheaper houses are of poor quality, with concerns about maintenance, insulation and other energy efficiencies.
And though we may have the houses, we also need the jobs. Cheaper housing means nothing without the latter; while it may see property investors doing well it's not so great for first-home buyers looking to put down roots.
Highlighting our housing affordability is playing to one of the city's strengths. Maybe an advertising campaign in Auckland promoting the wealth of housing stock here available at bargain prices, and the stonking great piles of money people in the City of Sails would have to put up for a comparable property.
It may not need to be any more than a website.
Of course, if the campaign worked the home affordability rate might go up. But given our position as the most affordable place in New Zealand for young people to buy, we could probably stand being a victim of our own success - just a little bit.