If you've spent any time house-hunting over the past few years, you don't need us to tell you that the market has become prohibitively expensive.
The median sale prices in the US ballooned from $313,000 at the beginning of 2019 to $416,900 in 2025, but when it comes to homeownership, affordability isn't just about the initial cost.
With that in mind, the team at WalletHub compiled a list of the 300 most affordable cities in the country using 10 key metrics.
"Things like the median house price compared to the median annual household income; just how far your money will go in a particular city," John Kiernan, managing editor of WalletHub, told KNX News.
They also examined the cost of homeowners' insurance, the cost of maintaining a house in the city, and the cost of living in the area.
"We also looked at the cost per square foot by looking at the average median listing price for a home and comparing that to the average square footage, and we looked at things like the real estate tax rate and the rent-to-price ratio to get a sense of how easy it is to go from renting to owning in a particular city," he added.
Flint, Michigan, came in at number one, but guess where most of the UNaffordable cities on the list are…
The 30 most “unaffordable” cities in the country, according to WalletHub.WalletHub
It might not be shocking to find out that 25 of the 30 most unaffordable are in California, and Kiernan said there are a few specific reasons for this.
"One, they have the lowest housing affordability overall, and we measure that by the median house price divided by the median annual household income," he said. "They also have the highest cost of living, kind of something California cities have in common."
These factors, along with a few other poor grades on the 10 metrics, contribute to our cities' low ranking on the list.
Ultimately, Kiernan said, real estate is a function of supply and demand, and with a limited supply of homes in places like Santa Barbara, the least affordable on the list, or Santa Monica, coming in right behind, it makes these highly sought-after areas unaffordable for the average person.
Some noteworthy Greater L.A. area cities that hit the list as the least affordable after Santa Monica were: Glendale (295), Los Angeles (294), Burbank (293), Pasadena (291), El Monte (285), and Fullerton (267).
Kiernan wasn't all doom and gloom on California, saying, "I think it's also worth pointing out that there is a flip side to it. There are 10 cities from California in the top 150 most affordable, and if you look at the top 2/3 of our study, there are 27 cities. So there are more cities in the top 200 than there are in the bottom 30."
Victorville was the only California city to crack the top 100, making it the most affordable California city on the list. "So if you wanna live near the prison," Kiernan said, "I guess it's a little more affordable than the beach."
After Victorville comes Lancaster, Visalia, Palmdale, and Stockton as the most affordable cities in the state.
Check out the full report HERE.
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