The 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Virginia For 2022

The 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Virginia For 2022

If you’re looking for the most affordable place to live in Virginia, look no further than Pulaski, a town about an hour southwest of Roanoke.

Housing in Pulaski is super cheap when taken as a proportion of income, whether you’re renting or buying. The median home price in Pulaski is $112,100 and the median rent is $775. With Pulaski residents earning a median income of $50,417, the mortgage or rent payments are a barely noticeable dent in the budget. If you move to Pulaski, you won’t know what people are talking about when they say that Virginia is one of the most expensive states in America.

Another southwestern VA city, Galax is the second cheapest place to call home in Virginia. The median rent in Galax is $571, the second lowest on this list. Homes in Galax go for a median price of $97,400 and residents earn a median income of $35,184, so it’s quite affordable whether you’re renting or buying here. And if you fancy fiddling or picking at the banjo, definitely check out the Blue Ridge Music Center.

A bedroom community of Roanoke, Vinton ranks as the third cheapest place in Virginia. Vinton has the highest median rent you’ll see on this list at $724/month, but that’s still less than half than the statewide average, and taken as a proportion of income, it’s the sixth best place to rent in Virginia. Folks in Vinton earn a median income of $52,048 and pay a median home price of $147,900, putting Vinton in the top ten for most affordable places to buy in the state.

Located about 50 miles south of Roanoke, Martinsville ranks as the fourth most affordable place in Virginia. With a median income of $36,166 and a median rent of $664, Martinsville is the least economical place to rent on this list, which is why it isn’t featured higher up. On the other hand, the median home price in Martinsville is $79,000, which makes the city the second most affordable place to buy a home in Virginia.

Living in Martinsville, you won’t feel like you’re in one of the most expensive states in the country.

Located in Alleghany County, Covington is the fifth cheapest city in Virginia.

While it’s impressive that you can rent a place in Covington for under $600/month, that’s not what lands Covington so high on this list. It’s because Covington has the #1.0 cheapest homes in Virginia, at a median price of $70,400. And it’s not like homes are cheap because the residents aren’t paid well — with a median income of $41,024, Covington residents enjoy the best ratio of home price to income in the state. Living in Covington, you’ll notice your savings growing as fast as the waters of the local Falling Springs Waterfall.

Big Stone Gap ranks as the sixth most affordable city in Virginia, thanks to cheap housing options for both buyers and renters. The median income in Big Stone Gap is $39,919, which is more than enough to cover the median cost of a home, $127,200, or the median rent $634. You’ll be able to enjoy overlooking Powell Valley without stressing about the bills thanks to Big Stone Gap’s affordable housing.

Big Stone Gap is located in the far western part of the state, near the Kentucky border.

With a population of 40,668, Danville is the biggest city to make this list, proving you don’t have to move to a small town to live economically. With a median rent of $688 and a median income of $37,147, renting in Danville won’t take full advantage of the city’s affordability. However, because home prices are cheap at a median price of $95,500, Danville has the fourth lowest ratio of home price to income in the state. If you stick to free hobbies like strolling down Danville’s Riverwalk Trail, you’ll have even more money in your pocket at the end of every week.

Danville is located in the south-central part of Virginia, on the border of North Carolina.

Christiansburg is a town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States. The population was 21,041 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Montgomery County. Christiansburg, Blacksburg, and Radford are the three principal municipalities of the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses those municipalities and all of Montgomery County.

Roanoke is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 97,032. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia.

Salem is an independent city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 24,802. It is the county seat of Roanoke County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Salem with Roanoke County for statistical purposes.

Cheapest Places To Live In Virginia FAQs

What county in Virginia has the lowest cost of living?

The county in Virginia with the lowest cost of living is Clarke County. The average living wage in Clarke County is $100,569 according to MIT data. Clarke County has the lowest cost of living because it has relatively less expensive childcare and housing costs compared to Virginia as a whole. Childcare costs $15,996 a year in Clarke County for two children compared to the Virginia average of $19,363. Housing costs, defined as a blend of the average rent and average mortgage payment, are $21,180 per year in Clarke County compared to $15,304 on average in Virginia.

What is the cost of living in Virginia?

The cost of living in Virginia is 8.9% higher than the US average. According to MIT, the required living wage for a family of four with two working parents in Virginia is $97,710 vs the national average for a family of four with two working parents of $89,744. The median income of a Virginia household is $76,398.

What is the cheapest housing market in Virginia?

The cheapest housing market in Virginia is Covington. The average home value in Covington is $70,400, the lowest in the state. The average home value in Virginia is $282,800, almost 4.0 times higher than Covington.

Methodology: How We Determined The Most Affordable Places To Live In The Old Dominion 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 Virginia 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 62 places in Virginia that have more than 5,000 people.

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