Everybody wants to save a buck. We use Groupon to get better deals at restaurants and never return there again. We share Netflix user names because why pay $15 a month when we can get that for free?
Not you, though. Everyone else does that.
Today, we will talk about the cheapest cities in the United States. Now, by cheap, we’re referring to the cost of living in these places. So, if you’re a cheapskate, you’d fit right in. Ideally, people want to move to cheap cities to afford to live without stress.
How do we define ‘cheap’ anyway? While we can’t tell if a population is generous or not, we can use Saturday Night Science to compare the cost of living across cities. A big portion of that is housing costs, but things like healthcare, groceries, and utilities also play a role.
What’s the cheapest city to live in America? According to the most recent data, Cleveland ranks as the cheapest city in America. And San Francisco, CA ranks as the most expensive American city.
$40,801 median income · $115,537 median home
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$39,938 median income · $75,358 median home
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$49,724 median income · $129,627 median home
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$56,160 median income · $181,928 median home
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$61,422 median income · $242,385 median home
This little jewel up in the northern corner of the state can’t brag about a lot, but it can hang its hat on being the 5th most affordable place to live in the country for all cities with more than 100,000 people. In Fort Wayne, you can pay off your home in 2 years and 4 months or pay rent 61.5 times in a year. Plus, as you might presume, since this is Indiana and all, taxes are relatively low, as are standard living expenses.
The smartest thing to do would be to work from home, earning a high salary and just renting here. You could save a lot of money in very little time doing that in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Of course, it’s Fort Wayne. But the economy isn’t doing too badly. There’s a decent number of manufacturing and health care jobs. It’s not gonna wow you, but you’d be entertained for a little while I guess.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$64,620 median income · $202,720 median home
We don’t have to go very far at all to get to our next cheapest city. This is Wichita, Kansas.
Here in Wichita, the home cost to income ratio is 2 years and 5 months. That’s dirt cheap. Now let’s compare that to our most expensive city in the nation, Los Angeles. In LA, the average household incomes are only $55k. But the cost of a home here is waaay out of whack at $560,000. Meaning — while in Wichita, a family could pay off a new home in 2.4 years, — in Los Angeles, a family would have to take 10 years to pay off their home. Which likely has a tiny yard.
But what a difference. Actually, California has 16 of the 20 most expensive cities to live in America. And we wonder why there are so many California refugees.
Wichita has 397,945 people, so it’s not a tiny place. And it has a lot of very blue collar manufacturing jobs.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$51,736 median income · $144,710 median home
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$59,838 median income · $217,450 median home
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$59,268 median income · $264,333 median home
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$66,219 median income · $229,209 median home
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is the United States’s statewide median.
the United States statewide median: $80,734
the United States statewide median: $332,700
On the map
Where the cheapest cities in America are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How We Determined The Most Affordable Large Cities in The US For 2026
The two most important things to think about when it comes to being able to afford if you can live comes down to how much money you make and how much you have to 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 2020-2024 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
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 2026. This is our eleventh 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.
The full plate
Cheapest Cities In The US For 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Cost Of Living Index | Population | Median Income | Average Home Price | Home/Income Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cleveland, OH | 80 | 366,097 | $40,801 | $115,537 | 3.0x |
| 2 | Detroit, MI | 83 | 638,530 | $39,938 | $75,358 | 2.0x |
| 3 | Toledo, OH | 85 | 267,463 | $49,724 | $129,627 | 3.0x |
| 4 | St. Louis, MO | 89 | 288,512 | $56,160 | $181,928 | 3.0x |
| 5 | Fort Wayne, IN | 91 | 268,589 | $61,422 | $242,385 | 4.0x |
| 6 | Wichita, KS | 92 | 397,945 | $64,620 | $202,720 | 3.0x |
| 7 | Memphis, TN | 93 | 618,980 | $51,736 | $144,710 | 3.0x |
| 8 | Tulsa, OK | 93 | 413,794 | $59,838 | $217,450 | 4.0x |
| 9 | Winston-Salem, NC | 93 | 252,037 | $59,268 | $264,333 | 4.0x |
| 10 | Indianapolis, IN | 94 | 885,860 | $66,219 | $229,209 | 3.0x |
| 11 | Cincinnati, OH | 94 | 311,224 | $52,909 | $249,568 | 5.0x |
| 12 | Laredo, TX | 94 | 257,619 | $63,915 | $220,331 | 3.0x |
| 13 | El Paso, TX | 95 | 680,130 | $59,745 | $234,775 | 4.0x |
| 14 | Milwaukee, WI | 95 | 566,973 | $54,234 | $220,137 | 4.0x |
| 15 | Columbus, OH | 96 | 914,802 | $66,082 | $245,979 | 4.0x |
| 16 | Oklahoma City, OK | 96 | 697,125 | $68,656 | $206,713 | 3.0x |
| 17 | Lincoln, NE | 96 | 294,856 | $71,867 | $291,062 | 4.0x |
| 18 | Huntsville, AL | 96 | 222,791 | $74,714 | $287,569 | 4.0x |
| 19 | Buffalo, NY | 97 | 276,854 | $50,041 | $238,089 | 5.0x |
| 20 | Lubbock, TX | 97 | 264,814 | $60,895 | $209,436 | 3.0x |
| 21 | San Antonio, TX | 98 | 1,479,835 | $65,056 | $249,810 | 4.0x |
| 22 | Kansas City, MO | 98 | 510,612 | $69,166 | $250,208 | 4.0x |
| 23 | Pittsburgh, PA | 98 | 304,759 | $65,742 | $237,533 | 4.0x |
| 24 | Arlington, TX | 99 | 397,742 | $75,171 | $310,971 | 4.0x |
| 25 | Greensboro, NC | 99 | 301,198 | $61,515 | $264,428 | 4.0x |
| 26 | Omaha, NE | 100 | 488,837 | $73,201 | $294,189 | 4.0x |
| 27 | Corpus Christi, TX | 100 | 317,419 | $67,394 | $223,502 | 3.0x |
| 28 | Garland, TX | 100 | 246,844 | $76,320 | $286,805 | 4.0x |
| 29 | Baton Rouge, LA | 100 | 222,771 | $49,994 | $228,415 | 5.0x |
| 30 | Irving, TX | 101 | 256,492 | $81,830 | $341,503 | 4.0x |
| 31 | Albuquerque, NM | 102 | 562,218 | $68,317 | $344,457 | 5.0x |
| 32 | Tucson, AZ | 102 | 547,073 | $57,073 | $324,023 | 6.0x |
| 33 | Philadelphia, PA | 103 | 1,579,706 | $61,953 | $231,815 | 4.0x |
| 34 | St. Paul, MN | 103 | 307,284 | $73,394 | $293,972 | 4.0x |
| 35 | Houston, TX | 104 | 2,328,253 | $64,813 | $264,336 | 4.0x |
| 36 | Fort Worth, TX | 104 | 963,194 | $79,507 | $298,051 | 4.0x |
| 37 | Dallas, TX | 106 | 1,307,930 | $70,518 | $309,421 | 4.0x |
| 38 | Charlotte, NC | 108 | 903,844 | $82,068 | $397,125 | 5.0x |
| 39 | New Orleans, LA | 108 | 371,853 | $56,631 | $242,493 | 4.0x |
| 40 | Glendale, AZ | 108 | 252,833 | $73,530 | $407,332 | 6.0x |
| 41 | Jacksonville, FL | 109 | 977,670 | $69,872 | $282,895 | 4.0x |
| 42 | Baltimore, MD | 109 | 573,243 | $62,177 | $188,101 | 3.0x |
| 43 | Norfolk, VA | 109 | 233,596 | $66,109 | $306,227 | 5.0x |
| 44 | Spokane, WA | 109 | 230,293 | $70,064 | $395,325 | 6.0x |
| 45 | Madison, WI | 110 | 278,001 | $78,050 | $423,767 | 5.0x |
| 46 | Phoenix, AZ | 111 | 1,642,323 | $81,332 | $410,169 | 5.0x |
| 47 | Durham, NC | 111 | 291,467 | $81,619 | $396,395 | 5.0x |
| 48 | Mesa, AZ | 112 | 511,764 | $82,752 | $435,134 | 5.0x |
| 49 | Port St. Lucie, FL | 112 | 232,491 | $80,648 | $383,298 | 5.0x |
| 50 | Richmond, VA | 112 | 229,359 | $64,587 | $369,646 | 6.0x |
| 51 | Chicago, IL | 114 | 2,711,226 | $77,902 | $317,283 | 4.0x |
| 52 | St. Petersburg, FL | 114 | 262,732 | $75,192 | $347,964 | 5.0x |
| 53 | North Las Vegas, NV | 115 | 278,595 | $79,542 | $407,047 | 5.0x |
| 54 | Hialeah, FL | 115 | 226,165 | $55,594 | $443,804 | 8.0x |
| 55 | Las Vegas, NV | 116 | 660,400 | $73,877 | $426,583 | 6.0x |
| 56 | Raleigh, NC | 116 | 481,031 | $85,395 | $433,996 | 5.0x |
| 57 | Minneapolis, MN | 116 | 427,246 | $80,846 | $330,882 | 4.0x |
| 58 | Tampa, FL | 116 | 401,618 | $75,475 | $374,888 | 5.0x |
| 59 | Orlando, FL | 116 | 319,758 | $72,336 | $374,136 | 5.0x |
| 60 | Chesapeake, VA | 117 | 252,583 | $95,373 | $420,756 | 4.0x |
| 61 | Virginia Beach, VA | 118 | 456,349 | $92,968 | $427,032 | 5.0x |
| 62 | Atlanta, GA | 119 | 505,268 | $85,652 | $385,599 | 5.0x |
| 63 | Plano, TX | 120 | 290,594 | $112,253 | $498,989 | 4.0x |
| 64 | Enterprise, NV | 120 | 240,464 | $98,462 | $488,021 | 5.0x |
| 65 | Newark, NJ | 121 | 310,178 | $52,060 | $478,455 | 9.0x |
| 66 | Fresno, CA | 122 | 545,970 | $70,991 | $391,328 | 6.0x |
| 67 | Colorado Springs, CO | 122 | 487,887 | $84,818 | $449,452 | 5.0x |
| 68 | Austin, TX | 124 | 979,539 | $93,658 | $508,530 | 5.0x |
| 69 | Bakersfield, CA | 124 | 411,986 | $80,540 | $396,047 | 5.0x |
| 70 | Chandler, AZ | 125 | 280,136 | $108,095 | $524,156 | 5.0x |
| 71 | Reno, NV | 125 | 273,212 | $80,760 | $567,857 | 7.0x |
| 72 | Stockton, CA | 126 | 322,326 | $79,907 | $431,328 | 5.0x |
| 73 | Tacoma, WA | 126 | 222,758 | $85,884 | $493,840 | 6.0x |
| 74 | Aurora, CO | 127 | 394,432 | $88,368 | $463,081 | 5.0x |
| 75 | Henderson, NV | 127 | 332,141 | $90,138 | $486,156 | 5.0x |
| 76 | Gilbert, AZ | 129 | 280,262 | $122,551 | $572,507 | 5.0x |
| 77 | Anchorage, AK | 130 | 288,976 | $103,284 | $410,782 | 4.0x |
| 78 | Miami, FL | 131 | 459,745 | $62,462 | $579,564 | 9.0x |
| 79 | Sacramento, CA | 137 | 528,706 | $87,321 | $479,766 | 5.0x |
| 80 | Riverside, CA | 138 | 319,069 | $91,045 | $646,784 | 7.0x |
| 81 | Portland, OR | 139 | 641,165 | $90,919 | $534,638 | 6.0x |
| 82 | Denver, CO | 142 | 718,877 | $94,718 | $539,666 | 6.0x |
| 83 | Scottsdale, AZ | 144 | 243,821 | $110,886 | $858,022 | 8.0x |
| 84 | Jersey City, NJ | 146 | 294,078 | $97,710 | $658,269 | 7.0x |
| 85 | Santa Ana, CA | 161 | 312,534 | $93,999 | $866,066 | 9.0x |
| 86 | Chula Vista, CA | 161 | 276,375 | $108,032 | $846,372 | 8.0x |
| 87 | Long Beach, CA | 163 | 455,548 | $87,430 | $857,861 | 10.0x |
| 88 | Santa Clarita, CA | 165 | 230,221 | $123,062 | $802,016 | 7.0x |
| 89 | Anaheim, CA | 168 | 344,521 | $95,227 | $950,504 | 10.0x |
| 90 | Boston, MA | 171 | 666,442 | $97,344 | $798,217 | 8.0x |
| 91 | San Diego, CA | 175 | 1,389,526 | $108,077 | $1,001,265 | 9.0x |
| 92 | Los Angeles, CA | 179 | 3,857,263 | $81,939 | $952,183 | 12.0x |
| 93 | New York, NY | 180 | 8,483,844 | $80,483 | $812,861 | 10.0x |
| 94 | Arlington, VA | 180 | 236,254 | $142,114 | $823,811 | 6.0x |
| 95 | Seattle, WA | 181 | 754,195 | $123,860 | $868,680 | 7.0x |
| 96 | Oakland, CA | 190 | 439,418 | $101,600 | $716,248 | 7.0x |
| 97 | Irvine, CA | 209 | 311,690 | $136,719 | $1,557,982 | 11.0x |
| 98 | San Jose, CA | 216 | 990,138 | $146,427 | $1,463,614 | 10.0x |
| 99 | Fremont, CA | 227 | 228,295 | $181,506 | $1,543,132 | 9.0x |
| 100 | San Francisco, CA | 247 | 830,235 | $140,970 | $1,356,662 | 10.0x |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024, Zillow. The 100 largest US cities.
Summary
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, Detroit, MI, Toledo, OH, St. Louis, MO, Fort Wayne, IN, Wichita, KS, Memphis, TN, Tulsa, OK, Winston-Salem, NC, and Indianapolis, IN.
So we hoped you learned something. We did. The next time you’re in over your head with bills, remember this: You could always move somewhere in the midwest. No? Okay.
