CNNMoney recently published a gallery of 25 affordable U.S. towns.  You can read the original article here.  The thing that they have in common: they are located in the middle of the country, and not even remotely near either coast.  No surprise there.  The gallery was nice to look at, but since I’m a numbers guy, I’ve put together a table, with the median home price and median family income for each.  I’ve also included a column that shows the median home price as a percentage of median family income:

As you can see by the list, these affordable towns aren’t evenly distributed throughout the country; they’re concentrated in the Midwest.  The final tally shows:

• Two states had 5 cities listed (Michigan and Indiana);
• Texas had 4 cities, many in proximity to Houston;
• Ohio had 3 cities;
• Three states had 2 cities on the list (Nebraska, Tennessee, and Wisconsin;
• Iowa and Kansas had one each.

So, the top 25 affordable towns are located in only 9 states.  Here’s a crude map showing the cluster:

That doesn’t say much for the other 41 states that didn’t make the list.  While I wasn’t expecting any coastal towns to make the list, I was surprised at the absence of towns from the South.  I was also surprised that many of the Michigan towns were near Detroit, given the state of the auto industry.

These towns really are affordable.  I can see where the home prices would allow young people to settle in the area where they grew up, unlike most places along the coasts.  I can tell you, no decent house in my area goes for even twice my annual income.  That’s even factoring in foreclosures.

What about you?  Do you live in an affordable area?  Or are you like me, surrounded by neighbors in underwater mortgages?

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