Where is the cheapest place to buy a house in the USA?

With a small 2 bedroomed terraced house round the corner from me going for £200,000 ($360,000) and my salary being 1/10th that, there's no chance of my being able to afford a house here (and I live in the "cheap" North East).

So this is a hypothetical question - I have no plans to try to relocate - where could I get the most bang for my buck. Rural or city any state considered. Though it has to be reasonably safe - not perhaps the rougher parts of LA for example.

Cheers

you can buy a house somewhere for around $100k. May not be the most exciting place in the world, but you can find it SOMEWHERE.

If there are $100,000 houses in DC proper, which I'm not even sure of, they're houses you definitely don't want to live in. What decent houses you could find would require a commute best measured in days. The three rules to real estate are, of course, location, location, and location. $100,000 could buy a very nice house in a town or small city pretty much anywhere in the US. But getting a well paying job is typically harder there. So if you're looking at a house in a well-off major metro area where there are jobs, you could have some trouble.

not anywhere.

It's tough, but it is worth it. We are safe here in Charles County. See post # 8. :)

has had some of the lowest housing prices of any metro area in the US.

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/tophousing/

metropolitan area consistently shows up as the least expensive housing for a major city. If you go to truly rural areas almost anywhere, housing is very inexpensive. But many people don't want to live very far off the beaten track. And as various low cost areas are "discovered", especially by retirees, they get more and more expensive.

Lynndie England's home town.

best price anywhere, just don't plan on having kids.

keeping the journalists in gin!

it looks like WV has some of the cheapest Median Gross Rent in the US according to the 2000 census.

Here's an interesting link regarding housing costs (deals with rent, but should be applicable to the original poster's question).

http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-21.pdf

"Median monthly rents were lowest
in West Virginia ($401). North
Dakota and South Dakota featured
the next lowest rents ($412 and
$426 respectively). Six of the ten
states with the lowest rents were
in the South: West Virginia,
Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky,
Mississippi, and Oklahoma. The
other two states with the lowest
monthly rents were in the West:
Montana and Wyoming ($447 and
$437, respectively)."

all options. I live in rural upstate New York, and found a nice place that a former NYS Police officer had "lost" to the federal government when he lost his job for brutality against a "suspect" who may or may not have commited a traffic violation. The guy had bought this place for a price I certainly couldn't have considered. But he only owed about $30,000 (total) when he lost it. I did most of the research on the title etc, paid an attorney a small fee, and went through HUD. The government got their $, the bank theirs, the attorneys were paid, and I got a house. Real estate is a card game, property seized for taxes etc is a pot of gold for those who are dealt into the game. I played one hand, and recommend that you consider it, too. Good luck.

35 mile commute to Washington, DC, is rough, but for us it's worth it. It is quiet here in semi-rural Southern Maryland. And from here, there are easy day trips to lots of historic and holiday destinations.

1500 square foot house with big yard and privacy fence for under 100,000. Not bad, huh ?

However, you have to live in TX which lets face it is not renowned for it's liberal views. Present company excepted.

I'll just have to wait for the crash here.

but it is cheaper.

Has super depressed real estate due to it's status as a "superfund" site. I think $40-60K gets you a nice home in town.

Man, you couldn't PAY ME $40,000 to live in Libby....

some of the lowest prices are in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.

I remember reading about Warren Buffet, and how he never decided to move to NY or CA, but instead stayed in his home town of Omaha, Nebraska because of the housing costs.

Yeah, those states are filled with freeper types, but in some of the cities (perhaps near a college town), you'll find some liberal, or atleast moderate communities.

I've heard that certain parts of Florida and other states offer some good options. I think it's rather broad though...You need some other factors in making this decision.

definately the midwest. look for states with low population (wyoming). out in the sticks, you'd spend under $50,000 for a nice, well to do home . . ..

It's in the Mojave desert. I just sold a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom house for 67,500. It's on 5 acres, with a well, beautiful views, quiet. Has a washer, dryer, two car garage. It's ten miles from the town of 29 Palms, and about 3 hours from LA.

I sold it to a friend, otherwise it would have been 69,000.

Here is the web page I did for the house.

http://catclipart.homestead.com/deserthome.html

Though it looks a bit like the sort of place people will turn up after taking too much acid in the desert.

Full of retired marines, hippies, artists, society dropouts, etc.

I'm still living in the house. I'm looking at buying some land out here that I could build on at a later date.

If you are interested in Wonder Valley, this is my web page for it:
http://catclipart.homestead.com/wondervalley.html

to me - my dream home and VIEWS!

Like your inspired art too.

Best wishes in Toronto.

:hi:

DemEx

I really want to visit Holland!

Wonder Valley is a good place, because even though it is so isolated, it's not hard to go up to LA for people and noise. I just got back from there, I went and saw the band the Urinals and had a great time.

I personally am hoping to move someplace someday soon in order to get my own house and be in an area which is not expensive.

Try Buffalo, New York. I've even referenced a bookmark here, which gives you ideas of the cost of houses. My mom says it's very industrial, which means jobs, but it also indicates to some extent that it's not all parks and greenery.

Regardless, the housing costs are extraordinary. I know it's a very cold (meaning freezing!) place, but hell--at the prices I've seen, you could get enough oil, gas or other energy for rock bottom prices and still live like a king! (Or queen, in my case!)

http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListings.asp?frm=bymap&typ=1%2C+2%2C+3%2C+4%2C+5%2C+6%2C+7&poe=realtor&mnbed=2&mnbath=0&mnprice=0&mxprice=125000&js=off&pgnum=1&fid=so&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&ct=Buffalo&st=NY&areaid=436&sid=02C32A27F78FC

Only 2 hours from Toronto too.

but I could but one of those with 2 months pay. Blimey, there must some serious problems round there.

There are some trailers that low that you can buy around here, rural WI. Houses that are small/and or need a lot of work are usually at least $40,000. There are decent houses that are in move in condition around here that are around $80,000.
My uncle did buy a house in rural Ohio for around $10,000 ten years ago but that house had a basment literally full of water and the village was considering condemning it. He spent about twice that fixing it up and has a nice house.
I see that there are many houses on that site that are lower than the price of a car, but that does seem odd.

When I saw those prices. I thought there was an error. But there are enough of them to think that they're right. My mom said that Buffalo is very industrial, so that might have a bearing on the prices. I have a friend in Tonawanda, so I'm going to ask her some questions. I think something in the $30,000 range would be a damned decent place at the going rate of the others.

NOBODY wants to come here. The people are extremely conservative and narrow-minded. The schools just blow. The teachers go on strike for at least a month at a time. It's far away from anything. Tons of snow in the winter.

Seriously, if you don't have kids or are willing to send them to a private school far away, this may be an good choice. Any middle class person can buy a few acres of quality land and build a beautiful house.

and I know just who could build your house for you.

My parents did that way back in the day. A nice big house in the country. They want to leave for someplace warmer to retire, but nobody wants to buy the property. The school situation has really messed things up.

Income, profession, job-related factors, hobbies and interests, phobias and preferances....

Kentucky is a decent, green and friendly place and the Louisville area has rental/sales costs and utility rates well below the national average. There are also more than several Universities, Colleges and Seminaries, national corporate headquarters and about 30 golf courses within a 45 minute drive (two of which are PGA certified).

Third in the nation in sinus trouble and allergies, hot and humid in the summer time and about 12,000 acres of parks harboring summer-time blood-sucking mosquitos who have been trained to "go for the tourist" and a tendendancy for erecting a church "every 6 blocks" (pointed out by a friend from Chicago)....

If you can relocate and afford a "less than a thou" Mortgage on a 2300 sq ft home with fairly low taxes, you may want to consider my area.

A two room refrigerator box goes for more than three years Walmart salary .

on the Washington state side. And yes, it's pretty cheap to have a modest home constructed there. Heck, I could do it with my pathetic little savings account.

Couple of little problems, though:

No sewer lines and too close to the water table for a traditional septic tank/outhouse. You'll have to use an outhouse configured to store waste above ground and pay dearly to have it trucked out periodically.

No electricity. Not enough of a population for it to be economically feasible to run lines out that way.

No cellular pods, same reason.

Very little community and even less viable employment.

Water costs a lot, and it's hot & dry in the summer, cold & harsh in the winter.

Hmm, Solar power and Washington, maybe not such a good idea, there'd be a ring of shit about 6 feet around your house.

Nevermind.

North Dakota is actually losing population (I think) and the towns are imploding. I'm sure you could get a decent house for a song.

Houses can be had in every state for the cost of paying the back taxes, in other words, cheap. The problem is location. There are no cheap houses in any place that anybody wants to live. A lot of people fantasize about having a place in the middle of nowhere, but please, take a vacation in such a place before you buy. Boredom and lonliness are big problems in such areas. Why do you think people in rural areas are so enamored of drinking, drugs, God, guns and blowing things up? There's nothing else to do. Think long and hard before buying in an environment that is different from what you're used to.

http://www.in.gov/doc/compare/MediamRealEstatePrices.html

It's from 2002, but it should help you out.

Hands down. You can buy a home here cheaper than anywhere else in the universe. And for good reason.

They have some neat looking older homes which are amazingly inexpensive. I think it is also supposed to be a more liberal place than many others.
Go to Realtor.com to check out any place you want.