The 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Nebraska For 2022

The 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Nebraska For 2022

If you’re looking for the absolute cheapest place to live in Nebraska, look no further than Schuyler, a city an hour north of Lincoln. What makes Schuyler so affordable? Well, Schuyler has the first least expensive homes for sale in Nebraska, with a median price tag of $87,700. Even more importantly, with a median income of $64,657, Schuyler has the best home price to income ratio in the state. If you’re looking to lock down a job before making the move, the Cargill beef processing plant is the city’s largest employer.

Alliance ranks as the second most affordable place to live in Nebraska. It’s also home to Carhenge, a quirky roadside stop on the western edge of the Sandhills of Nebraska that replicates Stonehenge. If you decide to move to Alliance, a home will set you back about $124,500 or rent will cost you around $676/month. Whether you’re renting or buying, know that you’ll be enjoying the fifth best housing to income ratio in Nebraska.

Alliance is located centrally in the Nebraska Panhandle.

Nebraska City is a city in, and the county seat of, Otoe County, Nebraska, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 7,289.

Located in the Nebraska Panhandle just north of the Colorado border, Sidney comes in as the fourth cheapest place to live in the state. The median home price in Sidney is $101,800 and the median income is $51,880. That means that Sidney’s population pays the second smallest proportion of their income on homes statewide. At $786/month, the rent in Sidney is also super affordable. Those looking to learn more about the city’s ties to the rugged frontier days on the late 19th century will definitely want to pay a visit to the Fort Sidney Museum.

Located along Route 30 in southern Nebraska, Lexington ranks as the fifth most affordable city in the state. You’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere in Nebraska that has cheaper homes for sale, because Lexington has the fifth lowest home prices statewide, with a median price of $114,500. And with a median income of $55,913, Lexington residents enjoy the third best home price to income ratio in Nebraska. Military buffs will be delighted to have the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles right in the neighborhood. And don’t worry that this inexpensive place with lots of weaponry on display is dangerous; we named Lexington among the safest places in Nebraska.

Located between Lincoln and Grand Island, York ranks as the sixth least expensive place to call home in Nebraska. York is another city that makes this list thanks to it’s affordable rent. While the median rent of $746 is slightly higher than Holdrege, York’s median income of $58,125 is also slightly higher. Overall, York has the seventh best rent to income ratio in Nebraska. And if you’re into quirky novelty museums, Lee’s Legendary Marbles and Collectibles makes a great day out on a budget.

South Sioux City is more than just a sibilant-heavy tongue-twister; it’s also the seventh least expensive place in Nebraska. Homes in South Sioux City are the sixth most affordable statewide, with a median price of $124,300. Renters also get the 18th best deal in Nebraska. If you do decide to settle down here, we recommend visiting Siouxland Freedom Park for relaxing picnic beside the Missouri River.

South Sioux City is located just south of Sioux City, Iowa.

Gering is a city in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 8,500 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Scotts Bluff County.

Ranking as our ninth most affordable place to live in Nebraska is McCook, a small city in the southwestern part of the state. McCook scored an 8/10 on our overall Snackability score, so you know they’ve got you covered on low unemployment, good schools, short commutes, and awesome amenities like the Heritage Hills Golf Course. And the great news doesn’t stop there; you can get a home in McCook for $111,100, the fourth cheapest price in Nebraska. And with a median income of $44,961, McCook has the 17th lowest home price to income ratio in the state.

While other cities higher up on this list may have cheaper homes, they don’t hold a candle to Holdrege when it comes to affordable rent. The median rent in Holdrege is a measly $654, about half the average rent in Nebraska. And with a median income of $53,241, Holdrege residents pay the 18th smallest proportion of their income on rent statewide.

Holdrege is also home to the Nebraska Prairie Museum, where you can learn about the WWII German POW Camp Atlanta.

Cheapest Places To Live In Nebraska FAQs

What county in Nebraska has the lowest cost of living?

The county in Nebraska with the lowest cost of living is Brown County. The average living wage in Brown County is $85,784 according to MIT data. Brown County has the lowest cost of living because it has relatively less expensive childcare and housing costs compared to Nebraska as a whole. Childcare costs $13,983 a year in Brown County for two children compared to the Nebraska average of $15,649. Housing costs, defined as a blend of the average rent and average mortgage payment, are $8,808 per year in Brown County compared to $10,488 on average in Nebraska.

What is the cost of living in Nebraska?

The cost of living in Nebraska is 0.2% lower than the US average. According to MIT, the required living wage for a family of four with two working parents in Nebraska is $89,596 vs the national average for a family of four with two working parents of $89,744. The median income of a Nebraska household is $63,015.

What is the cheapest housing market in Nebraska?

The cheapest housing market in Nebraska is Schuyler. The average home value in Schuyler is $87,700, the lowest in the state. The average home value in Nebraska is $164,000, almost 1.9 times higher than Schuyler.

Methodology: How We Determined The Most Affordable Places To Live In The Cornhusker State For 2022

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 2016-2020 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 Nebraska 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 32 places in Nebraska that have more than 5,000 people.

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