The 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Minnesota For 2021

The 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Minnesota For 2021

If you’re trying to live the high life without breaking the bank, there’s probably nowhere better in Minnesota than Hibbing, the most affordable city overall statewide. Renters can rejoice at Hibbing’s super low median rent of $524/month, the lowest price you’ll see on this list. But what really moves Hibbing to the top spot is the affordability of its houses. With residents earning a median income of $49,009 and paying a median home price of $109,800, Hibbing is firmly in the top ten in Minnesota for home price to income ratio.

To learn a little more about the root of the riches that helped make Hibbing the affordable city it is today, definitely check out the Hull Rust Mine, one of the largest open-pit mines in the world. Admission is free, in keeping with the cheap theme.

Located about 90 miles southwest of Minneapolis, New Ulm comes in as the second least expensive city in Minnesota. New Ulm is heavily influenced by its German heritage, as evidenced by the “Hermann the German” tower/monument downtown and Schell’s Brewery/Mansion. New Ulm doesn’t stint on important amenities to earn it’s uber-affordability status; in fact, we named it the third best place to raise a family in Minnesota for 2021.

The median income in New Ulm is $61,597 and the median home price is $141,300, putting New Ulm in a comfortable position in terms of home price to income ratio. The city is about equally affordable for renters as it is for buyers.

You’d have a tough time believing you’re living in one of the most expensive states in America when you’re in Montevideo. Homes in Montevideo are the cheapest in Minnesota, with a median price tag of $87,700. With residents earning a median income of $46,781, they pay the smallest proportion of their income toward homes of anywhere in the state. Rent is also quite cheap in Montevideo, but it’s still more economical to buy.

Montevideo is located in the western part of the state, where the Minnesota and Chippewa Rivers converge.

With a median home price substantially higher than the preceding cities on this list, you may wonder why Kasson ranks as the fourth cheapest city in Minnesota. While home prices in Kasson are a bit steep at $180,300, residents are paid correspondingly higher salaries, with a city-wide median income of $76,231. Where Kasson really shines, though, is the affordability of rent. For such a well-off populace, a median rent of $635/month is absurdly low. In fact, it’s less than half of the average rent in Minnesota. Not to mention Kasson got an almost-perfect 9.5/10 on our overall Snackability score, so you know it’s a great place to call home.

Kasson is located about 20 minutes west of Rochester.

You don’t need to be a crook to have all the money you need in Crookston, the fifth most inexpensive city in Minnesota. The median home price in Crookston is $130,200 and the median income is $55,473, so paying off the mortgage in Crookston happens in no time flat. With a median rent of $708, Crookston isn’t as affordable for renters, when looked at as a proportion of income.

Crookston is in the northwestern part of the state, a half hour southeast of Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Fairmont makes the cut as the sixth most affordable place in Minnesota by virtue of having the eighth cheapest homes in the state. The median home price in Fairmont is $123,700 and the median income is $47,876, so it’s a piece of cake paying the mortgage off. Complete with seven parks and countless nature trails, you’ll never go wanting for free entertainment in Fairmont either.

Fairmont is located in the south-central part of Minnesota, near the Iowa border.

Saving a few bucks can lose its appeal when it means missing out on the action, which is one compromise the people of North Branch do not have to make.

Residents can easily make their way to Minneapolis, which is roughly a 45-minute drive away, and take in all it has to offer while inwardly basking in the low cost of living that comes with residing in North Branch. A home in this community of 10,454 is relatively cheaper than in other parts of the country, with the area’s median value coming in at $191,400. At $867, the median rent rate is also quite affordable.

The cherry on top of those modest prices is a solid income, and North Branch’s median household income of $79,826 is just that. With all that extra cash in your pocket, you may just want to drive a few towns over and try your luck at the Grand Casino Hinckley.

You would be hard-pressed to find a community with waterfront access that has homes as affordable as those in Litchfield. Considering all this area has to offer, it’s hard to believe that the median home value here is just $136,200.

In fact, offering its residents a luxury lifestyle without the high price tag is something this city is quite good at. People here can enjoy activities like soaking up the views of Lake Ripley or playing a round at the Litchfield Golf Club while savoring the peace of mind that comes with a healthy bank account. A state of mind that is easy to slip into when your city has a 1.3% unemployment rate and a median household income of $56,941.

Even renters have it good in this city about 70 miles west of Minneapolis. The median rate here is just $750.

Located on the border of Canada, International Falls goes by the nickname “Icebox of the Nation.” But if you can withstand the bitter cold, International Falls has some sweet deals for you. The second least expensive homes in Minnesota are in International Falls, where the median home price is $88,200. With residents earning a median income of $45,208, International Falls has one of the best home price to income ratios in the state.

As a budgeting bonus, admission to Smokey Bear Park is totally free. Just don’t get spooked by the 26-foot bear when you drive in.

West of Rochester, sits Byron, our tenth most affordable place to live in Minnesota.

This community provides residents a high quality of life with its 0.29% unemployment rate and proximity to attractions like the popular Oxbow Park & Zollman Zoo, among other things.

A noteworthy unemployment rate does not mean much if jobs are not paying people well. Thankfully, that is not the case here. The median household income in this city is $94,153, a number that would serve you well in various places but makes life especially good in Byron. That kind of dough complements the median home value of $218,400 well and makes finding your dream house affordable. Covering the median rent of $957 is also reasonable if a down payment is not in the cards right now.

How We Determined The Most Affordable Places To Live In The North Star State For 2021

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 2015-2019 around incomes and costs. They are:

• Median Home Price / Median Income (lower is better)
• Median Income / Median Rent (Higher is better)
• Median Home Price

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

You can then compare these metrics in each of the places in Minnesota to figure out which is the least expensive.

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 146 places in Minnesota that have more than 5,000 people.

The place with the lowest cost of living in Minnesota according to the data is Hibbing. You can download the data here.