The 10 Cheapest St. Paul, MN Neighborhoods To Live In For 2022


We used science and data to determine which neighborhoods in St. Paul are the cheapest of the cheap.

Everything else equal, I think 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 neighbhorhood in St. Paul might be more expensive than living in rural Minnesota, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

So what exactly are those St. Paul 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 find out which neighborhoods in St. Paul are the cheapest.

What's the cheapest neighborhood to live in St. Paul for 2022? According to the most recent census data, Como looks to be the cheaptest St. Paul neighborhood to live in.

At this point we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for -- some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in St. Paul. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates in return for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around St. Paul that deserve a little bragging rights or maybe you're interested in the worst neighborhoods in St. Paul.

Once you're done, you can look at the bottom of the story for a complete chart of every neighborhood we looked at from cheapest to most expensive.

For more Minnesota reading, check out:

The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In St. Paul For 2022

Overall SnackAbility

9.5
/10

Population: 12,315
Cost Of Living Index: 104 (10th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.6 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.005 (cheapest)
More on Como: Homes For Sale | Data

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 21,851
Cost Of Living Index: 100 (6th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.0 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (5th cheapest)
More on Battle Creek: Homes For Sale | Data

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 30,979
Cost Of Living Index: 94 (2nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.7 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (13th cheapest)
More on Payne Phallen: Homes For Sale | Data

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 28,325
Cost Of Living Index: 96 (3rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.8 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (12th cheapest)
More on Greater Eastside: Homes For Sale | Data

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 15,619
Cost Of Living Index: 101 (7th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.0 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (9th cheapest)
More on West Side: Homes For Sale | Data

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 15,246
Cost Of Living Index: 92 (cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.8 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.024 (17th cheapest)
More on Thomas Dale: Homes For Sale | Data

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 12,902
Cost Of Living Index: 102 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.1 (7th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (10th cheapest)
More on Midway: Homes For Sale | Data

Overall SnackAbility

9.5
/10

Population: 19,204
Cost Of Living Index: 114 (13th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.9 (12th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.008 (2nd cheapest)
More on Macalester-Groveland: Homes For Sale | Data

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 24,653
Cost Of Living Index: 116 (15th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.6 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.01 (3rd cheapest)
More on Highland: Homes For Sale | Data

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 27,188
Cost Of Living Index: 97 (4th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.3 (10th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.021 (15th cheapest)
More on North End: Homes For Sale | Data

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest St. Paul Hoods In 2022

In order to rank the cheapest places to live in St. Paul, we had to determine what criteria defines "cheap".

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 17 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 St. Paul." We're lookin' at you, Como.

Read on below to learn more about what it's like to live in the cheapest places St. Paul. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In St. Paul

If you're measuring the neighborhoods in St. Paul where prices are low and it's cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

As we mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in St. Paul aren't all cheap. Summit Hill takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in St. Paul.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more Minnesota reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In St. Paul For 2022

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Como 104
2 Battle Creek 100
3 Payne Phallen 94
4 Greater Eastside 96
5 West Side 101
6 Thomas Dale 92
7 Midway 102
8 Macalester-Groveland 114
9 Highland 116
10 North End 97
11 Dayton's Bluff 99
12 West 7th 105
13 Merrlam Park 116
14 Summit-University 111
15 Saint Anthony 116
16 Downtown 104
17 Summit Hill 123

Editor's Note: We updated this article for 2022. This is our third time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in St. Paul.
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.