With more workers getting the green light to continue working remotely, those paying high rent prices in larger cities may be considering moving to a place with a lower cost of living. Unfortunately for them, a lot of other people have had the same idea, sending housing costs through the roof.
In fact, the median list price of a house in the U.S. was $392,000 in February 2022, and has been going up every month since early 2020, according to a report from Realtor.com. This is, at least in part, because the supply of available homes has steadily dwindled throughout the pandemic.
But that doesn’t mean first-time homebuyers are completely out of luck. That same report from the real estate listings site identified the 10 American metro areas with the cheapest houses on the market.
The 10 cheapest American metro areas to buy a house
Table of Contents
Generally speaking, these are smaller or mid-size cities that were once hubs of manufacturing and/or agriculture. When the industries moved, so did the jobs, and often, so did many of their former employees—leaving empty homes and neighborhoods.
“These areas generally have lower median incomes and lower costs of living, helping keep home prices lower,” Hannah Jones, an economic research analyst for Realtor.com said in a report from the company. “These metros have also largely been spared rising housing costs from an influx of remote workers who have typically sought out mountain and beach destinations.”
Unsurprisingly, most of these former industrial centers are located in the midwest, with no states west of Kansas making the cut. Here are the metro areas that did, along with their median house listing price in February 2022:
- Peoria, IL
Median list price: $98,000 - Terre Haute, IN
Median list price: $104,900 - Saginaw, MI
Median list price: $112,200 - Youngstown, OH
Median list price: $118,000 - Davenport, IA
Median list price: $127,400 - Erie, PA
Median list price: $148,400 - Charleston, WV
Median list price: $148,900 - Utica, NY
Median list price: $169,450 - Macon, GA
Median list price: $174,950 - Topeka, KS
Median listing price: $184,950
Of course, even if you’re able to get a house on the cheap, you’ll still have to furnish and decorate it. The good news is that these former industrial towns tend to have particularly great architectural salvage shops too, where you can get well-made local pieces at reasonable prices.