The Cheapest Homes Are In These States

Compared to last year, the median home value in the U.S. rose by 4%, but those numbers are predicted to fall slightly by next year. The true price of homeownership depends on where you live, and SmartAsset reviewed all 50 states against five metrics to find the cheapest states to purchase a home for 2020. The average price tag for a home is $248,857, and West Virginia takes the top spot for cheapest state with a median listing price of $165,000. The majority of states topping the list are in the Midwest and South. The most expensive states at the bottom of the list hail from coastal states such as California, Massachusetts, and Oregon.

Owning a home is a major goal for many people across the U.S. Securing a mortgage and buying that home, though, can be difficult to achieve. According to a June 2020 Home Values report from Zillow, the median home value in the U.S. is $248,857, an uptick of 4% over the past year. Though values are expected to fall about 1.5% in the year ahead, just how much you’ll be spending largely depends on where you’re living. That’s why SmartAsset crunched the numbers for the 2020 edition of our study on the cheapest states to buy a home.

To find the cheapest states to buy a home, we analyzed data on all 50 states and the District of Columbia across the following five metrics: effective property tax, median listing price, median listing price per square foot, median value in the bottom one-third of homes and average closing costs. 

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