For once, California is considered to be the least expensive place in a rankings piece.
With a median home price of $73,500, the town of California, Pa., topped Realtor.com’s list of the most affordable college towns. The home of the California University of Pennsylvania offers a variety of local employers, along with three nearby casinos and the Monongahela River.
Other college towns on the cheaper side include Muncie, Ind. (Ball State), Charleston, Ill. (Eastern Illinois), and Orangeburg, S.C. (South Carolina State).
Berkeley, Calif., meanwhile, ranked first for the 10 most expensive college towns. The median home price there is $1,000,000. Other pricy towns include Boulder, Colo. (University of Colorado), and Cambridge, Mass. (Harvard and MIT).
"In the same way that department stores serve as anchors in shopping malls, colleges and universities operate as anchors within a city," says Michael Harris, director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. TX. "Cities with colleges receive tremendous benefits, from a better-educated workforce to improved arts, culture, and leisure."
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