If you’re looking for an affordable place to to buy a home, start with the Midwest or South, a new assessment of America’s cities shows.
The personal-finance website WalletHub has released a report on 2025’s Most Affordable Cities for Home Buyers, and California metros dominate the list of least affordable, while several Midwest cities are rated most affordable. With the median home sale price having risen from $313,000 in the first quarter of 2019 to $416,900 in the first quarter of 2025, affordability is top of mind for many people, especially retirees.
WalletHub compared 300 U.S. cities across 10 metrics, including home cost, home maintenance cost, tax rates and vacancy rates.
“When deciding where to buy a home, home prices alone aren’t a good enough indicator of how affordable things will be,” Chip Lupo, a WalletHub analyst, said in a news release. “You also have to consider how the average price compares to a typical income in the area, plus things like the overall cost of living and the costs of maintenance and taxes. The most affordable cities, like Flint, Michigan, Detroit, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have low costs across several of these different metrics.”
Flint, Michigan, has the most affordable housing, which is 9.7 times cheaper than in Santa Barbara, California, the city with the least affordable housing. WalletHub rates affordable housing by median house price divided by median annual household income. Additionally, Flint has the highest rent-to-price ratio, 14 times higher than in Santa Monica, California, the city with the lowest.
Honolulu has the lowest median property tax rate — 10 times lower than in Paterson, New Jersey, the city with the highest.
Boise, Idaho, has the highest median home price appreciation, which is 6.3 times higher than in the city with the lowest, Stamford, Connecticut,.
Miami Beach, Florida, has the highest vacancy rate. Fontana, California, has the lowest.
Most Affordable Cities
Flint, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Surprise, Arizona
Akron, Ohio
Yuma, Arizona
Memphis, Tennessee
Augusta, Georgia
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Least Affordable Cities
300 Santa Barbara, California
299 Santa Monica, California
298 Berkeley, California
297 Costa Mesa, California
296 Irvine, California
295 Glendale, California
294 Los Angeles, California
293 Burbank, California
292 New York, New York
291 Pasadena, California
The Top Three
Flint, Michigan
“Flint, Michigan, is the most affordable city to buy a home in 2025, boasting the lowest cost of living index in the country and the most affordable home prices relative to residents’ income,” Lupo said. “It also has the lowest median home price per square footage, at just $61. To put that in perspective, the price in the most expensive cities is over $1,000 per square foot.”
Flint’s high rent-to-price ratio means it’s cheaper to buy property than it is to rent it. Almost 21% of all houses in the city are vacant, so buyers have many choices. WalletHub noted that may be due to Flint’s nationally reported water crisis, but the city’s drinking water has met federal standards for six years.
Detroit
The second-most affordable city for homebuyers, Detroit has a median house price a little more than twice the median household income, the second-lowest rate nationally. Also very low: the median price per square foot, about $87.
Because many residents moved out during financial crises of the past, more than 22% of Detroit’s housing is vacant, which makes it a buyers’ market. Like Flint, buying a home is cheaper than renting.
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, the third-most affordable city for homebuyers, has the 23rd-highest rent-to-price ratio in the study, again meaning that buying a home is more cost-effective than renting. Pittsburgh is ranked 28th in housing affordability; the median home price is about 3.8 times higher than the median household income.
The city also has the 14th-highest number of quarterly active listings per 1,000 residents.
Things to Consider When Choosing a City
WalletHub provided insights from several experts into what home buyers should consider when choosing a city.
“Home buyers obviously look at proximity to employment, friends and family, and location-specific amenities when deciding where to live,” said Professor Andrea J. Boyack of the University of Missouri School of Law. “Affordability has increasingly been an important factor as well.”
Boyack noted that job flexibility, such as working remotely, has increased since 2020, so an individual can work for a company in a less affordable location while living in a more affordable one.
“In past years, redevelopment and urban resurgence in some Midwest cities have made them vibrant places to live offering recreational opportunities – all at a vastly more affordable price than coastal cities,” Boyack said. “But in every city, there is a wide range of neighborhoods, and in every city, it is a better investment to buy in areas that are safe, have good schools, access to public transportation, and public amenities.”
Cris de la Torre, a professor at the University of Northern Colorado, said one of the most important factors for homebuyers to consider when choosing the city is the stage of life they are in. “Senior living is so different than parents with young children, de la Torre said. “If I’m older, I would look at the cost of living, the cost of taxes, including the cost of dying. Medical care would be a major concern, along with proximity to family. If I’m younger with kids still in school, I am looking for affordable housing with good schools. Weather is always a factor.”
What’s Next?
De la Torre predicted that the housing market likely will return to normal. “If you check the for sale signs, anecdotally at least in my neighborhood, there are many more this year as compared to last year,” he said.
Buyers and sellers have been on the sidelines for about a year, so there’s pent-up demand for both groups, he said, adding a prediction that interest rates will come down in the second half of the year. “I think the Federal Reserve will begin lowering the Fed Funds rate by July. But do not expect interest rates less than 4.5%,” he said.
Lei Zhang, an associate professor at Old Dominion University, said it’s difficult to make a blanket prediction about the housing market, because regions differ markedly.
“In some places with extremely hot housing markets in the past few years, such as Texas and Florida, the supply has begun to surpass the demand. The housing market will cool down. While in other places with relatively restricted regulations, the supply has not kept pace with demand, causing these markets to continue experiencing a mild increase,” said Zhang who also is editor of the Review of Regional Studies.
To view the full report and your city’s rank, go here.
