The 10 Cheapest Cities In The United States For 2025

The 10 Most Affordable Cities In The United States For 2025

1. Cleveland, OH

Review Of Cleveland by HomeSnacks User

Cleveland has all the benefits of a big city without the heavy traffic and high prices. There are great sports, art museums, plays, and restaurants.

The east 4th street area and the Flats stand out with great places to eat, drink, and hang out.

Review Cleveland

2. Memphis, TN

Review Of Memphis by HomeSnacks User

Very low cost of housing and no state income taxes are big advantages. Some surrounding communities have low crime and have good public schools, be careful of the local community and who you know. Not too unfriendly but fear new ideas, creativity and mistrust new people and anyone complaining about moving in to leave bad areas because of fear what would say about them. Somewhat luddite and expensive to fly in and out as Delta abandoned their hub in the small airport which is not international is keeping people out along with the reputation of the more dangerous localized areas and they’re relatively mistrusting while liberal in and near the city in a conservative state. The issues are being worked on by the new Governor and big companies such as just opening a new facility in historic but areas in need.

Good is no state income tax and low cost of housing with low property taxes and some nice areas. Bad is high cost of flights, need to be careful about where to live and go.

Review Memphis

3. Buffalo, NY

Review Of Buffalo by HomeSnacks User

Buffalo now has a beautiful waterfront. It is a great place to raise a family and homes are reasonably priced.

Pros: Waterfront, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Food, Affordability, NHL hockey, NFL football

Cons: We all know about the snow, but it is manageable.

Review Buffalo

4. Detroit, MI

Review Of Detroit by HomeSnacks User

MICHIGAN IS A VERY GOOD STATE IN THE GREAT LAKES. IN THIS CITY HAS A POPULATION OF ABOUT 10 MILLION.

YOU’VE BEEN ON A MICHIGAN FALL COLORS TOUR OR TAKEN A DRIVE THROUGH THE COUNTRY IN THE FALL JUST TO SEE THE LEAVES CHANGING.

Review Detroit

5. Toledo, OH

6. El Paso, TX

7. Laredo, TX

8. Tulsa, OK

9. Greensboro, NC

Review Of Greensboro by HomeSnacks User

The crime was relatively low. I lived in a suburban area.

The park nearby was very nice. As well as the local food.

Review Greensboro

10. St. Louis, MO

Review Of St. Louis by HomeSnacks User

Being in a new place is so different,everything is different but the people are great. I got tot meet some really good people along the way.

Of course the Arch stands out more than anything else in St. Louis. There is no bad side to it at all

Review St. Louis

Next 10 Cities

Methodology: How We Determined The Most Affordable Large Cities in The US For 2025

The two most important things to think about when it comes to being able to afford if you can live comes down to:

1. How much do money do I make?
2. How much do I have spend to live there?

You need to understand your costs in the context of how much money you make.

For example, if the median household earns $100,000 and spends $40,000 on housing it’s actually cheaper to live there than a place with a median income of $50,000 and housing costs of $21,000. You might spend more on housing, but you have more money overall to play with.

With that example in mind, we derived several statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 around incomes and Zillow for home prices. They are:

• Median Home Price / Median Income (lower is better)
• Median Income / Median Rent (Higher is better)
• Cost of living index

We added simply median home price because high home prices generally correlate with higher expenses for all costs related to homes (heating, electricity, etc).

What you are left with is a “Cost of Living Index” by taking the average rank of each of these metrics for each city.

So we used that cost of living index in order to rank all of the 100 largest cities in the US. We updated this article for 2025. This is our tenth time ranking the cheapest places to live in America.

The place with the lowest cost of living in America according to the data is Cleveland, OH.

Summary: The Cheapest Big Cities in America

Okay, there ya go. Our cheapest cities in the USA. The places where you can live the most comfortably on your income. After measuring every cost of living factor that makes sense, there isn’t a clear ‘region’ that has the advantage for cheap living.

The cities in the United States with the lowest cost of living are Cleveland, OH, Memphis, TN, Buffalo, NY, Detroit, MI, Toledo, OH, El Paso, TX, Laredo, TX, Tulsa, OK, Greensboro, NC, and St. Louis, MO.

And while this is good news for the places we mentioned, if you happen to live in Yonkers, NY, Jersey City, NJ or San Francisco, CA, you’re probably head over heels in living expenses.

So we hoped you learned something. We did. The next time you’re in over your head with bills, wondering why you paid all that money for a worthless college degree and lamenting that new car purchase you just made, remember this: You could always move somewhere in the midwest. No? Okay.

Here’s a look at the most expensive cities in America:

1. San Francisco, CA
2. Fremont, CA
3. San Jose, CA

For more reading, check out:

• Best Places By State
• Worst States In America

Cheapest Cities In The US For 2025