Seven of the 10 least expensive places in the U.S. to buy a home are in the Rust Belt, and the rest are in the South

(NASDAQ: RDFN) — Detroit, Cleveland, and Dayton, OH—all places where the median home-sale price is under $230,000—are the least expensive metro areas in the U.S. to buy a home, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage.

Four more places in the Rust Belt—Rochester, NY, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, NY and St. Louis—and three in the South—McAllen, TX, Baton Rouge, LA and El Paso, TX—round out Redfin’s ranking of the 10 U.S. metros where homes are least expensive. The median home-sale price is under $265,000 in all 10. For the sake of comparison, the national median home-sale price is $431,057. This ranking is based on median local home-sale prices in the 91 most populous U.S. metro areas.

In eight of these 10 metro areas, buying a home is affordable in addition to being inexpensive. Detroit, Pittsburgh and St. Louis are the most affordable places among these metros, with a homebuyer earning the local median income spending 25% or less of their earnings on payments for the median-priced home. Redfin considers buying a home affordable if a household earning the local median income spends no more than 30% of their earnings on the monthly housing payment.

For the sake of comparison, metros with expensive homes are much less affordable: in Los Angeles, for example, someone earning the local median income would need to spend 76.7% of their earnings to afford the median-priced home ($905,000).

Housing affordability—or lack thereof—is a hot-button issue throughout the U.S., as home prices and mortgage rates have soared over the last several years. Nationwide, the median monthly mortgage payment is at an all-time high, and those record-high costs, along with economic turbulence and recession fears, are pushing prospective homebuyers to the sidelines. Renting is cheaper than buying a home in every major U.S. metro, and a 2024 Redfin survey found that nearly 40% of renters believe they’ll never own a home.

Even among the 10 least expensive places to buy a home, sale prices are substantially higher than they were a decade ago. The median sale price has more than doubled in four of the 10 least expensive U.S. metros, and nearly doubled in three more, since 2015.

“In many Rust Belt cities, buying a home is inexpensive compared to the rest of the U.S. because they don’t have the high-paying job opportunities of coastal cities, or the warm winters of southern cities,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “Still, those places are also much more affordable to locals than the rest of the country, particularly California and New York. For buyers priced out of expensive coastal markets, especially people with geographic flexibility like remote workers or retirees, a place like the Rust Belt or parts of Texas are attractive for people looking to stretch their dollar.”

This report is based on Redfin’s median home-sale prices for the 91 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas. Affordability data is from a Redfin analysis of median local household income and median home-sale prices, assuming a 15% down payment and March 2025’s average 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 6.65%; a home is considered affordable if a household spends no more than 30% of their earnings on monthly payments.

To view the full report, including metro-level insights, please visit:

https://www.redfin.com/blog/metros-where-you-can-buy-a-home-for-under-300k

About Redfin

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, rentals, lending, and title insurance services. We run the country's #1 real estate brokerage site. Our customers can save thousands in fees while working with a top agent. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Since launching in 2006, we've saved customers more than $1.8 billion in commissions. We serve approximately 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 4,000 people.

Redfin’s subsidiaries and affiliated brands include: Bay Equity Home Loans®, Rent.™, Apartment Guide®, Title Forward® and WalkScore®.

For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin's press release distribution list, email press@redfin.com. To view Redfin's press center, click here.

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