Least expensive city center to live in, with lower crime factored in. (living, best)

[northoceanbeach]

What are maybe the top five or top ten least expensive city centers to live in? I would like to say downtowns, but I'm including the surrounding urban area and not just the actual downtown if it is defined by the financial center with skyscrapers as many are.

Not cities like New York or Chicago where the skyscrapers extend past the financial district, but a lot of cities like downtown Dallas. The downtown downtown where the skyscrapers are is mostly the daytime financial center and after hours closes down and people go back to the suburbs. But Dallas does have an urban area to the north of downtown. Where they are building more high rise city living and people are returning to live in the city, for fun and liveliness and not to have to have the dreaded Styx in traffic commute everyday.

So what are the top most inexpensive cities to live in the urban core?

They should be only bigger cities, say having a metro population or 4 or 500,000 or more. Cities at the minimum like for example, Dayton Ohio, Birmingham Alabama, Lexington Kentucky, Chattanooga Tn, Fresno California. Not to mention of course the greater cities in between those and the Chicagos and new yorks and low angelses.

If we could somehow ad in a statistic to include crime to factor into the cost of living that would be great. I'm sure websites like this have statisticians, amateur ones, that know how to do that kind of thing.

The purpose being to not just have a list of the top ten most dangerous cities! Lol. Because that is what this could turn into. Cities like Memphis and Detroit probably have cheap urban cores, but we need to factor in crime because to a large extent that is what is keeping the cost down.

So maybe let's say St. Louis was ranked out of the 100 largest cities as being number 13 in cost of living. But if you factor in the reason is partly high crime, on my list that should bring St. Louis down to maybe in the thirties.

I hope I'm being clear and getting my point across. In trying to get help from the demographic hobbyists on here like myself to make a list that other people can use bit could be very useful to answer a lot of where should we as a young couple move questions. And I think it would just be interesting. I don't see many lists where they only include the cost living from the city center. And then a lot of the Midwestern cities are suffering severe crime.

Good idea? Let's here it. Here is my guess as to what might be the top ten. But it is in no way accurate. And not in order. Just to get the ball rolling. Cities I think downtown may have inexpensive living with a high focus on rents, transportation costs, food, entertainment etc ...

Dallas
Atlanta
OKC
Lexington KY
Louisville KY
Cincinnati (but might have too much crime.)
Omaha
Denver
Salt Lake City
Boise
Tucson

[lepoisson]

Remove Dallas, Atlanta, and Denver from the list. Living in the middle of the city will cost you at least $1500/mo for a 1br apartment.

The other places are definitely cheaper.

[lovecrowds]

Originally Posted by northoceanbeach

What are maybe the top five or top ten least expensive city centers to live in? I would like to say downtowns, but I'm including the surrounding urban area and not just the actual downtown if it is defined by the financial center with skyscrapers as many are.

Not cities like New York or Chicago where the skyscrapers extend past the financial district, but a lot of cities like downtown Dallas. The downtown downtown where the skyscrapers are is mostly the daytime financial center and after hours closes down and people go back to the suburbs. But Dallas does have an urban area to the north of downtown. Where they are building more high rise city living and people are returning to live in the city, for fun and liveliness and not to have to have the dreaded Styx in traffic commute everyday.

So what are the top most inexpensive cities to live in the urban core?

Dallas
Atlanta
OKC
Lexington KY
Louisville KY
Cincinnati (but might have too much crime.)
Omaha
Denver
Salt Lake City
Boise
Tucson

Louisville has a fantastic, inexpensive core neighborhoods but the city in the midst of a record-breaking homicide rate currently.

Lexington sounds impressive. I have not been there. But I know it is a high-amenity university city with good hospitals and retail. Also, a very low cost of living and really, lush scenery.

I have been to Cincinnati and love the architecture, topography and set-up of the city and it is very inexpensive. However, the crime rates are extremely high and I have been there and felt very unsafe as there were people everywhere just hanging out on street corners looking to cause trouble.

I love Omaha but the downtown is boring in my opinion. There is a huge amount of old architecture in Omaha that is extremely affordable though, so if one is looking for a cheap, old house it is a good city for that.

Omaha has two major medical schools in the core, there is a huge number of businesses for a metropolitan area of it's size in the core areas also.

Omaha in my opinion is a very boring city in my opinion but one when it comes to amenities such as universities, health-care, infrastructure, economy it is one of the best cities if not the best city for it's size in the country for amenities that count.

Most core neighborhoods in Omaha are very safe for a big city, except just north of downtown. I just looked it up 17 out of the cities 20 homicides so far this year have been in a very small area of the city just north of downtown.

One thing about Omaha is it is very hilly and lush and for some reason crime seems more concentrated from the hilly topography.

In Omaha, apartments start at around $400 for a small, outdated apartment in shabby areas just southeast of downtown to $600-800 for an updated apartment near the University of Nebraska/Omaha, Nebraska Medical Center (which is a city skyline itself) area

Denver is very expensive but rents are going down. Around $1000-1200 a month for a 1 bedroom. Denver in general has a very safe core except for a neighborhood called Cole just northeast of the downtown. There is a very large homeless population in downtown Denver though.

Salt Lake City has fantastic neighborhoods from downtown to the University of Utah that feel like a mountain resort/college city. However, the area just south of Gateway Mall and Pioneer Park is extremely rough and the police actually will stop people who shouldn't be in the area.

Salt Lake City is way about it's weight when it comes to urban amenities. Huge university, huge university hospital, huge amount of retail and alot of historic areas for a western city.

An apartment in the Avenues would be around $800/mo as opposed to the same apartment which would be around $1000-$1200 in Denver.

Salt Lake City in general is very safe, clean and affordable compared to Denver but there are some areas in Salt Lake City (Pioneer Park and 200S/600W) that are as bad any neighborhood in Los Angeles and Los Vegas.

I was just in Tucson last month and it has a terrible core. They have a nice university area but the rest of it is a very sad state of affairs with third-world levels of desperation, open-air drug use and people withdrawling off illicit drugs in public.

It is a very affordable city though. You can get an apartment in the core of Tucson for $400 a month.

Des Moines, Iowa has a very, very nice downtown for a city of only 200,000 people. Sherman Hill near Drake University has many apartment buildings and they are around $600/mo.

[NOLA101]

The crappier the core, the cheaper the housing. So probably somewhere like Gary, IN, Bakersfield, CA, Flint, MI or the like.

Huge cities, with vibrant cores, aren't going to have cheap housing right downtown.

[northoceanbeach]

Great posts!

Revising as we go


Atlanta(need more info)
OKC
Lexington KY
Louisville KY
Cincinnati (but might have too much crime. May drop from high crime. Unfortunately the largest historic district in America is just north dt. It is the former German area but now it's a thetto morons my where you went nbeautiful buildings but scary. Probably drop Cincy soon )
Omaha
Salt Lake City
Boise
Portland Oregon (but I've heard prices are skyrocketing)

How about somewhere in New York outside of nyc or Virginia away from DC?

How about Florida? I heard it was cheap.

Nowhere in California I'm sure.

[northoceanbeach]

Originally Posted by NOLA101

The crappier the core, the cheaper the housing. So probably somewhere like Gary, IN, Bakersfield, CA, Flint, MI or the like.

Huge cities, with vibrant cores, aren't going to have cheap housing right downtown.

Those are way to crappy. Need a balance. That why I included crime. Oth wise the whole list would be cities like those.

[jjv007]

For what it offers, Philly is great. Looking at it objectively though, it obviously can't be as inexpensive as some of the other cities you mention.

[ckhthankgod]

Maybe some Interior Northeastern cities like Albany, Syracuse and Allentown may work. All are in metros that fit the population criteria and while they aren't crime free, they aren't as bad, comparatively speaking. You may be able to find solid apartments under $1000 for a 1 and maybe even 2 bedroom apartment.

I wonder about Grand Rapids MI or Des Moines IA as well?

[Soonhun]

I don't know much about its entertainment or downtown, but El Paso has a reputation for being cheap and very safe.

[bawac34618]

Oklahoma City is probably the least expensive out of those, but it also offers the least (except for maybe Lexington). You can get deals for around $600-1000 for a studio or 1br in downtown OKC. On paper, Oklahoma City isn't a bad deal at all. However, the culture is very much an acquired taste and the weather/climate is probably the worst of any sizable city in the U.S.

If CoL is your concern, I would avoid the hipster hotspots. Places like Portland are definitely out as as prices are skyrocketing. Out of the cities you listed, I would probably lean towards Louisville or Omaha.