Where Can You Actually Afford to Live AND Stay Safe? We Found 15 Places

Here’s the real talk: cheap housing usually means sketchy neighborhoods, right? Turns out that’s not always true. GOBankingRates dug into crime stats and cost-of-living data to find places that nail both.

The winner list is wild—7 out of 15 are in Ohio. Yeah, Ohio keeps showing up because the Midwest just hits different on affordability.

Top 3 cheapest + safest:

1. New Philadelphia, Ohio — $35.5K annual cost, only $1,101/month mortgage, violent crime rate 0.69 per 1K people
2. New Ulm, Minnesota — $36.4K annually, $1,316/month, crazy low violent crime at 0.29 per 1K
3. Parma Heights, Ohio — $36.6K yearly, $1,163/month, solid safety metrics

The outlier: San Elizario, Texas comes in at #4 with the lowest home value ($167K) but lower livability score—trade-offs exist.

By #15 (Edwardsville, Illinois), you’re looking at $45K+ annually, but that livability score jumps to 90. Basically: go midwest/small town for maximum bang, or add a few thousand if you want a “proper” city vibe.

Data pulled from FBI crime stats, Census Bureau, and Zillow (as of Feb 2025). Population range: 10K-63K across all 15.