House hunting? Data suggests the most affordable cities to buy a home

With both elevated home prices and higher interest rates, many consumers may question whether homeownership is still within reach.

But according to a new study, affordability hasn’t disappeared; it’s relocated.

To determine the most affordable cities for homebuyers, financial company WalletHub analyzed 300 U.S. cities using 10 key metrics, including home purchase and maintenance costs, tax rates, and vacancy rates.

Flint, Michigan is most affordable city

Big picture view:

The data found that Flint, Michigan, was the most affordable city for homebuyers, boasting the lowest cost of living index (COLI) in the country and the most affordable home prices relative to residents’ income. 

WalletHub also found that it had the lowest median home price per square footage, at only $59. To put that in perspective, the price in the most expensive cities is over $1,000 per square foot.

Flint also had a very high rent-to-price ratio, which meant that it’s actually cheaper to buy property than it is to rent it. 

Detroit came in as the second-most affordable city for homebuyers, with a median house price only being over twice the median household income, the second-lowest rate in the country. The median price per square foot was also very low, at roughly $89.

Meanwhile, Surprise, Arizona, made the list as the third-most affordable city for homebuyers, with the 18th-highest median home price appreciation, out of the 300 cities in our study, indicating strong growth in property values. It also had the eighth-lowest median real estate tax rate, helping reduce the overall cost of homeownership.

See the full report here.

What they're saying:

"When deciding where to buy, home prices alone aren’t a good enough indicator of how affordable things will be," Chip Lupo, a financial analyst with WalletHub, said in a statement. "You also have to consider how prices compare to incomes in the area, plus factor in things like the cost of living, maintenance expenses and taxes. The most affordable cities, like Flint, MI, Detroit, and Surprise, AZ, have low costs across several of these different metrics."

Home prices, interest rates climb

Dig deeper:

U.S. consumer sentiment slumped to a record low in early May as the war in Iran fanned inflation pressures and strained household finances.

On Tuesday, Home Depot said Americans were scaling back large remodeling projects as they grapple with mounting macroeconomic uncertainty and a subdued housing market strained by affordability pressures, according to Reuters. 

RELATED: America’s 10 most expensive ZIP codes: New leader takes the top spot

Home prices have surged in recent years, with the median sales price rising from $313,000 in Q1 2019 to $403,200 in Q1 2026. While prices may be beginning to ease in some parts of the country this year, interest rates have climbed sharply. For instance, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased from a historic low of 2.65% in January 2021 to 6.37% in May 2026.