Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.
I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.
And while every neighborhood in Denver might be more expensive than living in rural Colorado, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those Denver neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?
Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Denver are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
106 cost of living index
120 cost of living index
106 cost of living index
114 cost of living index
113 cost of living index
130 cost of living index
110 cost of living index
150 cost of living index
108 cost of living index
134 cost of living index
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Colorado’s statewide median.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the cheapest Denver hoods in 2026
To rank the cheapest places to live in Denver, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.
Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:
- Overall Cost Of Living
- Rent To Income Ratio
- Median Home Value To Income Ratio
We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 22 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.
And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Denver.” We’re lookin’ at you, Southwestern Denver.
We updated this article for 2026. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
The full plate
Detailed list of the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Denver for 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by neighborhood name.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Cost Of Living Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southwestern Denver | 106 |
| 2 | Park Hill | 120 |
| 3 | Northern Denver | 106 |
| 4 | Northwestern Denver | 114 |
| 5 | Southeastern Denver | 113 |
| 6 | Central East Denver | 130 |
| 7 | Gateway-Green Valley Ranch | 110 |
| 8 | Stapleton | 150 |
| 9 | Central West Denver | 108 |
| 10 | Baker | 134 |
| 11 | Washington Park | 184 |
| 12 | Alamo Placita | 118 |
| 13 | Golden Triangle | 134 |
| 14 | Jefferson Park | 145 |
| 15 | City Park | 148 |
| 16 | Capitol Hill | 127 |
| 17 | University | 138 |
| 17 | Cherry Creek | 181 |
| 19 | Lodo | 135 |
| 20 | Five Points | 149 |
| 21 | Highland | 149 |
| 22 | Auraria | 207 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. All 22 Denver neighborhoods.
Summary
Summary: Lowest cost places to live in Denver
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Denver where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in Denver are Southwestern Denver, Park Hill, Northern Denver, Northwestern Denver, Southeastern Denver, Central East Denver, Gateway-Green Valley Ranch, Stapleton, Central West Denver, and Baker.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Denver aren’t all cheap. Auraria takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Denver.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below. Not sold on Colorado? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Cheapest Neighborhoods In Denver FAQs
What is the cheapest neighborhood in Denver?
Southwestern Denver is the cheapest neighborhood in Denver for 2026. It posts the best combination of overall cost of living, rent against income, and home prices against income. Park Hill and Northern Denver are next.
What are the cheapest neighborhoods in Denver?
The cheapest neighborhoods in Denver are Southwestern Denver, Park Hill, Northern Denver, Northwestern Denver, Southeastern Denver, Central East Denver, Gateway-Green Valley Ranch, Stapleton, Central West Denver, and Baker. We ranked all 22 neighborhoods in the city.
How do you decide which neighborhoods are cheapest?
Three measures: an overall cost of living index, rent-to-income, and home-value-to-income, all from Census tract data. Scoring costs against local incomes keeps one luxury tower from skewing the math.
Is a cheap neighborhood a bad neighborhood?
Not necessarily — this ranking measures what things cost relative to income, nothing else. Check our safest neighborhoods in Denver ranking before you sign a lease, because cheap and safe are separate questions.
What is the most expensive neighborhood in Denver?
Auraria lands at the expensive end of the 22 neighborhoods we scored. If your budget disagrees with it, the rest of the list runs cheaper.
