The 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Mississippi In 2023

The 10 cheapest places to live in Mississippi for 2023

Holly Springs is a top contender for the most affordable places to live in Mississippi. Its overall cost of living is rated at 74.0 out of 100, making it an attractive place to settle down. The median home value in Holly Springs is $86,300, which is significantly lower than the state’s median home value. Similarly, the median rent is only $636 per month, which is below the national average.

Despite being affordable, Holly Springs offers a great quality of life. The city has a population of 6,743, and it is the county seat of Marshall County.

Ripley makes the cut as the second least expensive city in Mississippi thanks to being an excellent place for renters. The median rent in Ripley is a measly $546, and with residents earning a median income of $54,647, Ripley residents pay the smallest portion of their income statewide on rent. If you’d rather settle down and buy rather than rent, a home will set you back about $113,700. With all that extra cash you’ll have leftover, you can buy some seriously unique pieces at Ripley’s First Monday Day Trades, one of the oldest flea markets in the country.

Ripley is located in hills region of northern Mississippi, a half hour south of the Tennessee border.

Located about 50 miles east of Jackson off of Route 20 is Forest our third cheapest place to live in mississippi for 2023. Because of its proximity to the interstate, several prominent companies have manufacturing and processing plants in town. Those companies include Koch Foods, Tyson Foods, and the Forest Packing Company. Additionally, Raytheon has a manufacturing center in Forest, which means the local economy offers diversity for would be residents.

On a cost of living basis, the town is over 20% cheaper than the national average with particular affordability in housing. The median home value comes in at a level of $106,600. However, the real deals come when you enter the rental market. The median rent in the area stands at $610. That counts as the seventh lowest mark in the state. Not to mention that Forest is also incredibly safe for families. A good deal all around.

If you’re lucky enough to have walked Mississippi’s Tanglefoot Trail, you may have already passed through Pontotoc, a quickly growing city just west of Tupelo. One reason that Pontotoc is growing is that it’s an absolute haven for renters. The median rent in Pontotoc is $675, and renters pay the eighth smallest portion of their income on rent statewide.

The median income in Pontotoc is $49,036 and the median home price is $123,400.

A city in the Mississippi Delta region, Clarksdale is a city with historic ties to the development of blues music in America. Blues musicians such as Ike Turner and Duke Ellington were hosted at the Riverside Hotel, a popular stop on the Mississippi Blues Trail. You’ll certainly have no reason to sing the blues if you decide to buy a home in Clarksdale, where the median home price is the second in the state at $73,800. With residents earning a median income of $30,711, Clarksdale has the 11th best home price to income ratio in Mississippi.

Leakesville in Mississippi is one of the most affordable places to live in the state, making it a great option for people searching on a budget. With a population of 5,598, this small town offers residents a median home value of just $95,600, which is significantly lower than the state median, and a median rent of $689 per month.

Located about 40 miles northwest of Meridian, Philadelphia, Mississippi is a heck of a lot cheaper than it’s northern namesake. With a median rent of $757, Philadelphia is the least economical place to rent on this list. However, the city makes up for it by having the 12th cheapest homes in the state. Paying of a median mortgage of $94,200 on a median income of $37,551 is no sweat for Philadelphia residents. Since you’re already lucky enough to live in the seventh most affordable city in Mississippi, we vote you let your luck ride at Philadelphia’s Silver Star Casino. Even if you lose at the casino, you’ll be winning big on housing costs.

Like Pontotoc, Booneville’s position on this list is largely due to being a boon to renters. At $534, Booneville’s median rent is less than half the average rent in Mississippi, which is already substantially lower than the national average. However, Booneville is the least economical place to buy a home on this list, with a median home price of $120,300 and a median income of $41,992.

Booneville is located about a half hour north of Tupelo.

Like Diamondhead, housing in Byram is a bit on the expensive side for this list. However, because Byram’s median income is also high at $68,819, residents don’t pay as big a chunk of their earnings towards housing as elsewhere in the state. While a median home price of $147,600 may seem high, folks in Byram enjoy the third lowest home price to income ratio in Mississippi. Might we suggest using the extra cash you’ll have on the freshest produce in town at the local farmer’s market.

Byram is a southern suburb of Jackson.

Yazoo City is an affordable place to live in Mississippi with a median home value of $66,400 and median rent of $747.

As the county seat of Yazoo County, it boasts a rich history and culture. Named after the Yazoo River, which was named after the Yazoo tribe, this city has deep roots in Native American history. Today, residents can enjoy exploring local museums and landmarks that showcase the city’s history. Plus, with a population of 10,887, Yazoo City maintains a small-town feel while still offering all the amenities and services residents need to live comfortably.

Cheapest places to live in Mississippi FAQs

Methodology: How we determined the most affordable places to live in the Magnolia State for 2023

Determining affordability for places in Mississippi boils down to two factors:

1. How much money do I make?
2. How much does it cost to live here?

You need to understand your costs in the context of how much money you make to determine affordability. For example, imagine a place in Mississippi where median incomes are $100,000 and housing costs $200,000 to buy. That’s more affordable than living in a place with a median income of $50,000 where houses cost $101,000. The ratio of income to home prices is higher in the first example.

With that logic in mind, we derived several cost of living statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2017-2021 for Mississippi. The cost of living statistics are:

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

You can include median home price as a stand alone variable because high home prices generally correlate with higher costs for all goods and services (heating, electricity, food, etc). You then compare these cost of living metrics for each place in Mississippi to figure out which is the least expensive.

We aggregate those rankings into a “Cost of Living Index” for each city in Mississippi. The “Cost of Living Index” allows you to rank all of the 63 places in Mississippi that have more than 5,000 people from least expensive to most expensive.

The place in Mississippi with the lowest cost of living according to the data is Holly Springs. You can download the entre cost of living data set for Mississippi here.