There's a reason Duncanville is "affordable". Uninhabitable comes to mind.

The thing with these sort of lists is that they are always places nobody would want to live.

I've never been to these places, and I'm pretty sure not that many have been to most to be able to say that they are all uninhabitable.

You mean like New Jersey? Kidding... I used to live in San Francisco and moved to Pittsburgh, PA. It's amazing how far your dollar goes in Pitt and it really is a decent city. Bottom line, though, my mortgage in Pittsburgh is half what my one bedroom apartment rent cost me in SF.

@Bryan Fernandez:
I wouldn't go so far as to call a place I've never been uninhabitable. However, most folks know what area of the country they want to live in. For me, I'm a certified Southwest gal. For that reason alone, I wouldn't consider relocating to any of the towns on this list, although I'm sure at least some of them are nice places.

Arlington, TX: Isn't that where King of the Hill is?

Davenport, IA isn't a bad place at all. Also very close to the World's Largest Truck stop!! Not only do you save on housing costs, but you never need to pay to take the kids to Disney World!!!

Merrillville, Indiana. Yeah, no thanks.

I can't imagine, with the economy and all, that it's nicer now than it was in the mid '80s through the earlier part of this decade. And it sure as shit wasn't pretty then.

I've never been to New Haven, but Fort Wayne IN is, according to the article, next door, and it's quite a nice city. Admittedly, it's not Chicago or Indianapolis, but it's certainly livable and has lots of employers.

@I Love New Jersey: Coming from someone who loves New Jersey, I can only assume this is purposefully ironic.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the median price for a home sold in the month of December 2008 in Motor City (Detroit, MI) is $7,500.

Granted, its in one of the most economically devastated regions of the country, but on a positive note, Detroit's homicide rate dropped 14 percent last year. That prompted mayoral candidate Stanley Christmas to tell the Detroit News recently, "I don't mean to be sarcastic, but there just isn't anyone left to kill" . . .

Holland, MI can't be that bad; they make some pretty nice beers there.

[newhollandbrew.com]

@calquist: KotH is in Arlen, which is a spoof on Garland, TX.

I'm not surprised that Texas ranks up there. My wife and I were in San Jose visiting some of her family and their 1.3 million dollar home would probably cost 200k back in north Texas.

Texas - use all the land you want, we'll make more :)

Heck, that could be said for most of the Midwest and South.

@Bryan Fernandez: Holland, MI isn't a bad place to visit, but they are correct that it's quaint. It's more touristy than having a real job market.

Sterling Heights, MI, I've heard of but I think it may have been in a book by James Loewen about how racist it is.

At least most of these towns are close to large cities so there are likely to be jobs avaialble. Most are just commuter towns.

However, I wouldn't live in Merrillville, IN. It's close by but way too much traffic and it's too close to Gary. I avoid going to Merrillville as much as possible because the traffic just drives me nuts.

Amazingly Davenport, IA is on that list. There's a reason we moved from Davenport. Horrible schools, a lot of crime, and terrible city management.

@cromartie: Whats wrong with Jersey? I though air was supposed to smell like a paper factory, mixed with smelting and raw sewage

Stay away from Deer Park; it's right next to Stinkadena (Pasadena), where all the chemical plants are.

and

WOOHOO! Lake Jackson on the map! Any other fellow Lake Jackson-ites out there?

They may all look horrible to Easterners, but as a Midwesterner I'd say that several of these are very livable indeed.

Sterling Heights is a very nice place. I live walking distance from it.

Annnnd I continue to be pleased with the brick home I just purchased 20 minutes north of Atlanta for $110,000 with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, finished half basement with kitchen and full acre of fenced in land.

Enjoy California!

There's a reason we moved from Davenport, Iowa. I was born and raised there and couldn't escape fast enough. The surrounding towns are pretty good, Rock Island, IL possibly being an exception. Davenport has some distinct crime problems, poor schools and absolutely terrible city management. You may know Davenport from the news every-other year when they cover the "500 year" floods. They happen here so often because Davenport won't build a flood wall. Problem with that is, since everyone ELSE built one, the water needs to go somewhere... and that somewhere is Davenport.

@Spaceman Bill Leah: It's a nice area actually, my brother lives over in Grand Rapids and his in-laws are in Holland. Granted it was winter when I was there and everything was buried under snow but it looked like a nice place.

@calquist: But you just missed the I-80 Trucker Jamboree! I suppose you can console yourself with a visit to the new Trucker Museum that they just opened or a walk through the chrome shop. I'm constantly surprised that the whole place doesn't spontaneously collapse into a singularity of Americana trucker kitsch. I drive past the place every day on my way to work in Davenport which, as has been mentioned, isn't too bad a place. Not as hip as Iowa City/Coralville but definitely much cheaper in the realm of real estate.

@I Love New Jersey: Actually Oak Ridge is pretty great. Its Oak Ridge as in Oak Ridge "we built the bomb" National Labs, so the schools are pretty solid since a decent chunck of the population are running around with PhD's. Not only that, but its near the Tennessee River, in the Appalachian Mountains, and is less than 30 minutes from Knoxville too, which is a fairly large city.

What's wrong with Oak Ridge?

@Quill2006: I moved from Chicago 4 years ago to a town north of Fort Wayne and I actually work in the downtown area of Fort Wayne.

I paid the same in Sa@Radi0logy:

Deals are everywhere, I paid the same for a 4 bedroom 2 bath in Sacramento before the prices got out of hand.

Less land, but then I am in city limits.

And I do enjoy California. =)

@floraposte: i just don't like tornadoes....nothing against the midwest except for tornadoes. i also don't like hurricanes or earthquakes...which leaves me firmly in the northeast. I'll take my blizzards any day of the week.

I worked in Findlay, OH for a few years while living in Toledo. It's "quaint" as they say but too sanitized for me. It seems like the kind of place that would exile you for not being white, Christian, or straight.

@Blueskylaw:

"According to the Chicago Tribune, the median price for a home sold in the month of December 2008 in Motor City (Detroit, MI) is $7,500."

Doesn't qualify - the list is for cities where the home price is at or below the median income.

@Radi0logy:
Oh I will. I will enjoy the sun, the surf, the snow, and valley, the desert, the redwoods, and everything else i can enjoy within a 3 hours drive of EITHER LA or SF (yes, take your pick). Yes, you're right, you got a hell of a deal on your house, and in CA that same house would probably be well north of $750k, but come on... there's a reason why CA is so damn expensive... LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

@Spaceman Bill Leah: I guess that depends upon whether you don't mind living around a large amount extremely right-winged, fundamentalist type christians.

Holland and Grand Rapids can seem like worlds apart.

Oak Ridge is kind of a pit. Most of the houses close to town (which are affordable) were built in the 50s and 60s when the town was famous for the labs there.

@sponica: Eh. We lived out in the midwest for 20 years and never saw a tornado. We were in a couple of warnings, but never had to hit the basement.

For me, brush/forest fires and floods are the worst that could happen. And if I owned property in the area, hurricanes. Anything that allows you to watch things happen in a long, drawn-out manner.

Even in DC you can find affordable housing in Prince William County. I don't know why my friends continually bitch about it being so expensive. I almost most to point out the hell hole that is Silicon Valley.

@Diet-Orange-Soda: The amount of pride Findlay, Ohio has is appalling considering just how mediocre it is.

What cracks me up the most though is that a town mostly dominant of Cleveland Browns fans, immediately converted to Steelers central when hometown boy Ben Roethlisberger became a Steeler.

I could choose to live in my parent's basement. That is cheap too...

@Quill2006: If by right next door you mean 340 miles away, it's right next door.

@exploded: Nevermind. The consumerist marked it at new haven IL not new haven IN.

@thegirls: But they have windmills! J/K I could never live with a bunch of fundies.

@mtarget: I'm about a mile away myself. Nice city, but good luck finding a job.

Oh neat, a list of places I never want to live.

@Blueskylaw: Sure, the houses are cheap, but it's the cost of the gun towers at the perimeter that gets you.

I want to know the places where you can afford to live and not have to own a car. I'm looking to move from NYC to save money, but you need a car to get by in 99% of this country, and once you factor in car payments, insurance and gasoline, most of the cost savings vanish.

I always hated driving. I can obviously do it again if I have to, but it's ridiculous that the majority of our country is build to encourage total dependence on cars.

Buying a house for one year's income might be setting your sights a little too low. Most banks will lend you three times your income if you have reasonable credit, and if you put 20% down, you can easily buy a house that costs 3.75x your income. At 5.5% APR, your mortgage payment (principal and interest) will be just over 20% of your gross income. At 6%, just over 21.5%. At 7%, not quite 24%. If you can't borrow at 7%, you should probably rent and live frugally until your credit improves, then buy.

@U-235: yeah, i hear that overall, TN generally is a hidden jewel. i guess most people think deliverance when they hear TN, but the few people i know that bought land down there got a huge bargain & talk about the area like it's the garden of eden.

@Quill2006:

Fort Wayne is near New Haven IN, not New Haven IL.

@Red-headed bookworm: My dad used to live in Sterling Heights. It's actually not a bad place. There's plenty of ethnic food, if that's what you're into. There's plenty of spillover of crime from Warren.

A lot of engineers my dad works with either get transferred to Sterling Heights or have been there for some time. The auto and defense industries both have some facilities there.

@Don Roberto: My mom has worked in Deer Park for most of my life... it's a pretty scary place. She used to have me watch the news for her and let her know if any explosions happened any given day.

You don't have to go there to get good home prices in the area though.. lots of suburbs of Houston have really nice homes for cheap.

@John Henschen: I'm from Rock Island (and my husband's from Duncanville, TX) with various ties to just about everyplace in the Midwest, and I'd have to agree. Given a choice, I'd rather pay 2-3x as much for a house out east and have access to national parks, national-calibre symphonies, the mountains, the ocean, etc. etc. I certainly wouldn't curl up and die if I were back in the Midwest, but I'm certainly not scouting for reasons to return, either.