Real estate research and education website Livability.com found that Lansing, Michigan is the most affordable place to live in 2018. The median list price was $89,000, a third of the national median.
"Lansing is one of those underrated gems. It’s a place that is growing and changing in some really great ways. I see this list as proof that there are still great cities across the country that are still accessible to people of all different budgets," Winona Dimeo-Ediger, managing editor of Livability, explains to Realtor.com. "You can still have a really high quality of life [in these towns and cities] for a low cost of living."
Lansing started experiencing a recovery from the recession a few years ago and has since taken off, says local real estate agent Stacy Sinadinos of Coldwell Banker Hubbell Briarwood. And it's led to a housing shortage. Builders can't seem to put up single-family homes in subdivisions surrounding the city and condos within the city limits fast enough. And there is new construction everywhere, Sinadinos says.