There Are Affordable Homes For Sale—Here's Where to Find Them

Increasing home prices may force buyers to question if any affordable single-family homes exist at all, but metros outside the top 10 U.S. cities are offering a high quality of living and homes well below the national median price, says Forbes. On average, every home sold in April received five offers in addition to some markets seeing homes sold for 30% over the asking price. It is unclear how long the hot housing market will continue, says Forbes, but metrics are generally seen as highly sustainable, which may worry some buyers looking for affordable housing. Still, though prices have increased by the double digits, there are several metros, such as Indianapolis, Memphis, and Pittsburgh that remain affordable.

The new remote work normal is also empowering millions of potential homebuyers to look at cities and neighborhoods that were never on the map before because they needed to commute to jobs in major metropolitan areas. That’s making homes in formerly lesser known cities in the Midwest and South that always had thriving downtowns and sustainable economies before the pandemic some of the best places to invest in real estate in the country based on year-over-year appreciation.

“The explosion of remote work has caused many to reimagine what and where they want their home to be,” continues Chakravorty. “So more affordable areas of the country are in high demand as buyers look for homes that offer more room to spread out. That could mean moving farther from a downtown core into nearby suburbs, or from a more-expensive metro to a less-expensive one which is in part what’s driving price appreciation in these smaller, Midwestern and Southern cities. The bottom line is that we are still in the early stages of what we call the Great Reshuffling as many are taking advantage of more flexible remote work policies to rethink where and how they want to live. Some who have been working remotely during the pandemic may be called back to the office. But others will receive firm guidance from their employer of a permanent ability to work remotely and take advantage of that freedom for years.”

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