When it comes to picking a city to settle down in and buy or rent a place to live, affordability is a key factor. I don’t think many people go into life saying, “I want to find the most expensive city to live in and make that my home.”
Smaller towns have often been considered more affordable than their larger counterparts. But, some small cities are much more affordable than others. There are obviously many factors that go into whether a city has low housing prices, a low cost of living and general good affordability rate, and that varies greatly from town to town.
GreatLakesEcho.org recently published an article looking at the affordability of small towns throughout Michigan. The publication analyzed date from a recent WalletHub study about affordable small cities and dug deeper to find Michigan’s most affordable spots.
“The study based affordability on median household income, cost of living, homeownership rate, housing costs and the number of households in which housing was a financial burden. Housing value and homeownership were large parts of what made a city affordable or not,” the publication states. As it turns out, there’s quite a big discrepancy. For example, GreatLakesEcho.org points out, “Southfield’s median home value is about $10,000 cheaper than Holt. The median price of a house in Holt from 2015 to 2019 was $162,500 while in Southfield it was $155,700, according to the US Census Bureau.”
So, what are the most affordable small cities in Michigan? Read on for the top five most and least affordable cities in the state. I’m familiar with most of these, and it’s interesting to know they’re such a steal when it comes to housing costs, the cost of living and median household income. Find the full study here.