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 Mobile might be more expensive than living in rural Alabama, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those Mobile 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 Mobile are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
77 cost of living index
85 cost of living index
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
83 cost of living index
86 cost of living index
85 cost of living index
83 cost of living index
83 cost of living index
83 cost of living index
83 cost of living index
83 cost of living index
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Alabama’s statewide median.
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the cheapest Mobile hoods in 2026
To rank the cheapest places to live in Mobile, 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 140 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 Mobile.” We’re lookin’ at you, Riverfront Industrial Area.
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 Mobile for 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by neighborhood name.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Cost Of Living Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverfront Industrial Area | 77 |
| 2 | Winfield | 85 |
| 3 | Fowl River | 83 |
| 4 | Colonial Heights | 86 |
| 5 | Glen Acres | 85 |
| 6 | Beau Terra | 83 |
| 7 | Seminole | 83 |
| 7 | Twin Lakes | 83 |
| 7 | Huron | 83 |
| 7 | Edington | 83 |
| 7 | Mohawk | 83 |
| 12 | Cedar Grove | 83 |
| 13 | Mertz | 81 |
| 14 | Oakleigh | 80 |
| 15 | Baker | 93 |
| 16 | North Industrial Area | 82 |
| 17 | Prospect | 92 |
| 18 | Plateau | 79 |
| 19 | Cody | 84 |
| 20 | Woodlawn | 84 |
| 21 | Pinewood | 86 |
| 22 | Highland | 81 |
| 23 | Hamilton | 88 |
| 23 | Churchill | 88 |
| 23 | Jackson Creek | 88 |
| 23 | Rothfield | 87 |
| 23 | Cypress Branch | 88 |
| 28 | Dauphin Acres | 85 |
| 29 | Rose Haven | 87 |
| 30 | Hillview | 86 |
| 30 | Gorgas | 81 |
| 32 | Big Creek | 90 |
| 32 | McCrary | 90 |
| 34 | Carlen | 94 |
| 35 | Summerville | 80 |
| 36 | Riviera | 84 |
| 37 | Venetia | 89 |
| 38 | Rolling Acres | 98 |
| 38 | Lott Road | 87 |
| 40 | Belmeade | 94 |
| 41 | Westmont | 85 |
| 42 | Owens | 83 |
| 43 | Nevius | 87 |
| 43 | Garland | 90 |
| 43 | Grove Hill | 85 |
| 46 | Baltimore | 81 |
| 47 | Canterbury | 102 |
| 48 | Reichlieu | 87 |
| 48 | Riviere De Chien | 101 |
| 50 | Loma Vista | 83 |
| 51 | Kimberline | 97 |
| 51 | North Crichton | 81 |
| 53 | Neely | 82 |
| 54 | Rickarby | 84 |
| 55 | Parkhill | 100 |
| 56 | Autumndale | 79 |
| 57 | Ridgeway | 91 |
| 58 | Alderbrook | 103 |
| 59 | Happy Hill | 81 |
| 60 | Navco | 85 |
| 60 | Hannon Park | 96 |
| 62 | Greenmound | 84 |
| 63 | Devonshire | 88 |
| 64 | Bellewood | 87 |
| 64 | Park Place | 93 |
| 66 | Forest Highland | 90 |
| 67 | Bell Aire | 83 |
| 67 | Muddy Creek | 83 |
| 67 | Argyle | 83 |
| 70 | Skyland Park | 96 |
| 71 | Bayside | 92 |
| 72 | Lyons Park | 97 |
| 72 | Cottage Park | 105 |
| 74 | Fisher | 81 |
| 75 | Warwick | 101 |
| 76 | Beverly | 85 |
| 77 | D Iberville | 97 |
| 78 | Overlook | 88 |
| 79 | Blackstone | 95 |
| 80 | Usa | 87 |
| 81 | Camelia | 93 |
| 82 | Sunnyvale | 94 |
| 82 | Pamona | 94 |
| 82 | Mooncrest | 94 |
| 82 | Red Creek | 94 |
| 86 | Theodore Industrial Park | 85 |
| 87 | Scenic Hill | 94 |
| 88 | Redstone | 95 |
| 89 | Pine Grove | 89 |
| 90 | Deer River | 86 |
| 91 | Melrose | 91 |
| 91 | Bellmont | 88 |
| 91 | Westfield | 88 |
| 91 | Sheldon | 91 |
| 91 | Bates | 91 |
| 96 | Milkhouse | 96 |
| 96 | Leinkauf | 90 |
| 98 | Maysville | 84 |
| 99 | Westlake | 106 |
| 100 | Maryvale | 81 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. All 140 Mobile neighborhoods.
Summary
Summary: Lowest cost places to live in Mobile
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Mobile where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in Mobile are Riverfront Industrial Area, Winfield, Fowl River, Colonial Heights, Glen Acres, Beau Terra, Seminole, Twin Lakes, Huron, and Edington.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Mobile aren’t all cheap. Thornhill takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Mobile.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below. Not sold on Alabama? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Cheapest Neighborhoods In Mobile FAQs
What is the cheapest neighborhood in Mobile?
Riverfront Industrial Area is the cheapest neighborhood in Mobile for 2026. It posts the best combination of overall cost of living, rent against income, and home prices against income. Winfield and Fowl River are next.
What are the cheapest neighborhoods in Mobile?
The cheapest neighborhoods in Mobile are Riverfront Industrial Area, Winfield, Fowl River, Colonial Heights, Glen Acres, Beau Terra, Seminole, Twin Lakes, Huron, and Edington. We ranked all 140 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 Mobile ranking before you sign a lease, because cheap and safe are separate questions.
What is the most expensive neighborhood in Mobile?
Thornhill lands at the expensive end of the 140 neighborhoods we scored. If your budget disagrees with it, the rest of the list runs cheaper.
