{"id":83319,"date":"2025-12-17T05:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/?p=83319"},"modified":"2025-12-18T12:11:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T20:11:59","slug":"most-affordable-cities-for-homebuyers-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/most-affordable-cities-for-homebuyers-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"The Suburbs of St. Louis Are the Most Affordable Place in the U.S. to Buy a Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Midwest and South are home to a majority of the country&#8217;s most affordable cities.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A typical household in Bellefontaine Neighbors, MO, a St. Louis suburb, would need to spend just 16% of their income on housing every month\u2014the lowest share in the nation and less than half the national average. Ferguson, MO (17.6%), Detroit, MI (17.9%), Broussard, LA (18.4%) and Bayou Cane, LA (18.6%) round out the top five.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nationwide, the typical homeowner has to spend <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/income-needed-to-afford-home-august-2025\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">39%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of their income on housing, which is well above the recommended 30% threshold.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"datawrapper-vis-jM8kr\" style=\"min-height: 834px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/jM8kr\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-jM8kr\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/jM8kr\/full.png\" alt=\"The most affordable cities in the U.S. for homebuyers (Table)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is according to a Redfin analysis of median incomes and median home sale prices across nearly every U.S. city, using weighted averages from January-November 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re highlighting the most affordable cities in the nation because housing costs are near record highs, sidelining many would-be buyers. With buyers priced out, homes are harder to sell, prompting would-be sellers to hold off and contributing to an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/housing-market-plateauing-october-2025\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">unusually<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> slow yet still expensive <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/buyers-vs-sellers-october-2025\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">buyer\u2019s market<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a sharp contrast from the pandemic homebuying boom, when homes sold like hot cakes as buyers took advantage of historically low mortgage rates and remote work. The frenzy depleted housing stock, though, and buyers began backing off as prices and mortgage rates climbed at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/housing-market-records-2021\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">record rates<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Now, buyers and sellers are dealing with the aftermath.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAffordability is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2025\/12\/10\/trump-affordability-voters-inflation-economy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">top of mind<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for many people today, as rising costs have left younger generations feeling like homeownership is just a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/renters-becoming-homeowners-2024\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pipe dream<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d said <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/author\/asad-khan\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asad Khan<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a senior economist at Redfin. \u201cBut believe it or not, there are still plenty of areas\u2014mostly in the Rust Belt and the South\u2014where buying a home is financially comfortable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Costs are lowest in the Midwest and South<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A majority of the most affordable cities are located in the Midwest and Southern U.S., with a large share in the Rust Belt. Housing in these regions tends to be <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/aging-housing-inventory\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">quite old<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/detroitmi.gov\/departments\/housing-and-revitalization-department\/hud-programming-and-information\/neighborhood-stabilization-program\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">especially<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in places like Detroit, which can keep prices low. Every city in the top 50 has a median sale price near or below $300,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Housing costs are low in Bellefontaine Neighbors, and North St. Louis in general, largely because of decades of economic disinvestment and discriminatory housing policies, epitomized by the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/wagner.nyu.edu\/rudincenter\/2018\/02\/delmar-divide-st-louis-visualization\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delmar Divide<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Residents north of the divide generally make less money and have fewer opportunities than those in the south.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This pattern isn\u2019t unique to St. Louis. In many of the nation\u2019s most affordable cities, homeownership may look attainable for local households on paper, but the reality is often more complicated. Many cities have poverty rates far above the national average and house a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cepr.org\/voxeu\/columns\/housing-and-inequality-critical-link-economic-disparities\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">disproportionate share<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of underserved groups. So, even though the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">typical <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">household can afford their monthly payments, not everyone can.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s also worth noting that lower-income areas <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban.org\/urban-wire\/opportunities-rewarding-work-vary-widely-within-and-across-counties\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tend to have<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> fewer job opportunities, especially well-paying ones, which contributes to the same cycle of disinvestment that keeps prices low.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Austin, TX\u2014a pandemic boomtown\u2014is among the nation\u2019s most affordable cities<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A notable addition to the list is Austin, TX, where the housing market has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/buyers-vs-sellers-september-2025\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dramatically slowed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> since it peaked as the nation\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/real-estate-home-value-surge-december-2021\/#:~:text=Housing%2DMarket%20Value%20Surges%20Most,most%20populous%20U.S.%20metropolitan%20areas.\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hottest<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2021.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many people who moved to the region for its sunshine and affordability during the pandemic have since moved away, creating a surplus of inventory and helping prices drop from their peak. A <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/austin\/2023\/09\/22\/remote-work-census-data\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">significant share<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of people were able to move because they worked remotely, but left when return-to-office mandates pulled them elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Affordability should improve in 2026<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/housing-market-predictions-2026\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Redfin predicts<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that affordability will slowly improve in 2026 and beyond, as wages climb faster than housing costs for a sustained period for the first time since the Great Recession.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cRising wages and declining costs may bring some life back to the market in 2026, but until homebuilding catches up to years of unmet demand, affordability will remain a challenge,\u201d Khan said. \u201cThe best way to make homebuying affordable\u2014especially for younger generations\u2014is to make homebuilding easier and provide financial and social support to populations in need.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"datawrapper-vis-T6u3I\" style=\"min-height: 1690px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/T6u3I\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" data-target=\"#datawrapper-vis-T6u3I\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/T6u3I\/full.png\" alt=\"Top 100: The most affordable cities in the U.S. for homebuyers (Table)\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Methodology<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Redfin analyzed 1,751 cities across the United States and ranked them from most to least affordable based on their payment to income ratio\u2014the share of income a typical household would need to spend on housing every month, assuming the local median household income and median home sale price. The lower the share, the more affordable the city.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We applied varying population thresholds in order to provide a more equal comparison between states, ranging from a 2,500 minimum in states like Vermont to 50,000 in California. We also set a minimum price per square foot value to rule out areas with an outsized share of dilapidated housing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All data represents a weighted average from January-November 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Midwest and South are home to a majority of the country&#8217;s most affordable cities.\u00a0 A typical household in Bellefontaine Neighbors, MO, a St. Louis suburb, would need to spend just 16% of their income on housing every month\u2014the lowest share in the nation and less than half the national average. Ferguson, MO (17.6%), Detroit, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13563,"featured_media":83329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,8],"tags":[20,623],"dashboard":[],"coauthors":[753],"class_list":["post-83319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-affordability","category-housing-market-news","tag-housing-affordability","tag-national"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.7 (Yoast SEO v27.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Suburban St. Louis Is the Most Affordable Place to Buy a Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bellefontaine Neighbors, MO is the most affordable city in the country, where homebuyers have to spend just 16% of their income on housing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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