Where is the cheapest place to live in the USA?

Show all answers

cedarpktx

Texas is definitely cheap compared to out West and out East. HOWEVER, all the Cali people have been figuring this out and are moving here in droves. They are ruining it! They love to come here with their stories of how they "paid cash for their $400K TX home and still have money to buy their little foreign sports cars". They fly around here like they own the place and the locals can't stand them. The only up side is that home values are slightly going up because they think nothing of throwing their $$ around to impress everyone (of course, locals trying to upgrade to a better house are not being able to compete). And, another thing is that they are buying second and third homes here to rent out (in FAMILY neighborhoods). My neighborhood (homes above 200K) is loaded with renters. Their greed has ruined the neighborhood for people like us. I'm figuring that this will eventually make Austin not so desirable. We plan on moving to the Midwest to get away from this mini-California. I don't want to raise my kids around these materialistic (and not so neighborly) opportunists.

oldmanwitastick

Mid western slums.

nyman

As a region, the Midwest is the cheapest in terms of the consumer price index.

412 KiD

Pittsburgh, PA is extremely cheap and has tax free shopping!

http://www.visitpittsburgh.com/

spikeyblonde_22

Indianapolis is not too bad. It all depends on where you're from, though. I think it's relatively cheap.

mrs. me

we moved from Fresno ca to Texas and it is sooooooo much cheaper and we still get paid about the same!! not to mention that the air and sky is so much cleaner. I LOVE TEXAS!!!!

RoaringMice

Definately the midwest. And the cheapest places I've ever seen, nice houses, decent neighborhoods, too, are in Nebraska, N. Dakota, and S. Dakota. A house that would cost about $550,000 in Westchester County, NY (where I lived at the time) was going for... drumroll, please... $55,000 in Broken Bow, Nebraska. And that is not a typo.

And there are jobs there. You won't make as much in salary as you would in, say, NYC, but the cost of living difference is so huge that you can live quite comfortably on fairly little money in these states.

However, these states aren't for everyone. Our manufacturing plant in one of these states, for example, used to hire managers from all over the US, but they kept quitting. They just couldn't take the weather and the lifestyle. People who live there, and like it, tend to really, really love it. People who don't like it HATE it.

I think part of it is that so many of these towns are so remote. It used to take me 14 hours to get from NY to our plant. Two planes, then driving for hours. The ladies at the plant used to take vacation days to go shopping 4 hours away at the nearest Walmart.

John Deo

One of the most affordable houses to buy are in the middle of South Carolina around Columbia area. The climate is wonderful and it's so many forests here. The climate is not humid in so-called "Sandhills" of South Carolina. Average humidity is 30% to 60% and it's warm most of the time even in January. The beaches just 1,5 hours away, the mountains are 2 hours away. Charlotte is 1,5 to 2 hours drive and Atlanta 2,5 to 3 hours drive.
There are also surrounding cities, such as Georgia's second largest city Augusta, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia and Columbia, South Carolina. It's about 3-4 hours drive to Florida and about 1 days drive to New York City and Chicago. Can you desire better than this? I think middle of SC is the best location to live at and invest into. And to mention the fast growing city of Columbia, SC which is becoming another Charlotte or Atlanta. Get your condos or houses while they still cost a tiny fraction of California's homes. A median home price in Sandhills of South Carolina (middle of the state from Augusta-Aiken to Columbia to Camden to Florence) is still way under $100,000!!! We bought a 2500 sq. ft. brick house in great condition on a 1 acre lot for $85,000 and the neighbors told us that we overpaid a little bit! You can buy a decent brick house here for as low as $40,000 to $60,000 and if you need a huge mansion on multiple acres you can get one for only $250,000 to $400,000. Everything grows here in the midlands/sandhills, anything from pine trees to tropical palm trees. We have planted windmill palms, medjool moroccan palms, canary palms and they do well here. The temperatures range from 60 to 100F around the year with night temperatures ranging from 30s to 70s all year round. 20s are rare while 10s are extremely rare here. Hurricane activity is quite rare in the middle of Southy Carolina as most hurricanes hit NC coast while tornadoes usually although rarely happen on the coast or near the mountains. The midlands because of it's sandy soil has a sunny and dry comfortable climate while beaches are a good hour's drive away. We think that South Carolina's largest city COLUMBIA along with nearby ORANGEBURG, AIKEN, IRMO and CAMDEN has a great future and is going to grow faster every year. And by the way, we were surprised how friendly the local folks are.

sarge927

Probably North and South Dakota in terms of cost of living, but they don't have many good-paying jobs out there, so it usually ends up being a wash.

Jimmy

Southern part of the USA (Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida - it depends, Alabama, and anything south) = cheapest places to live.

bellgoddess1

Places without a state income tax are usually cheaper. New Hampshire, Texas, places like that. A comparable house in California and Texas is a huge difference in price. More and more people are moving to Texas from Cali and paying cash for bigger and nicer houses and having a bunch of money left over. Some places like Arkansas and Oklahoma are pretty cheap in terms of gasoline but have state taxes. You just have to weigh your options and see what is more important to you. Texas can compete with New York and Cali in the workplace and the fashions, too. That would be my vote. There are places where cows out-number people and packed places with no cows in Texas =) so whatever your style you can find it pretty cheaply.

M.nadeem .R M

xX_0o_Xx

I's say Texas, the houses are soo cheap over there, i live here in california in Long Beach, and a house is around 500 thousand and only single story and two bedrooms with one bathroom. I used to live in Texas and there you can buy a two story house 4 bedrooms two bathrooms for like 400 thousand. I mean look at that difference, it's great!

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: