3 Cheapest Big Cities in America

Small towns don’t have a monopoly on low living costs.

Small towns don’t have a monopoly on low living costs. In our search for the cheapest places to live in the U.S., we found three big cities that rank surprisingly high for affordability. Is one of these sizable cities right for you?

Indianapolis

City Population: 853,173

Cost of Living: 16.2% below U.S. average

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Median Household Income: $41,987 (U.S.: $53,889)

Median Home Value: $118,300 (U.S.: $178,600)

Average Monthly Rent: $690 (U.S.: $1,004)

Unemployment Rate: 4.0% (U.S.: 4.9%)

Highlight: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Memphis

City Population: 655,770

Cost of Living: 17.0% below U.S. average

Median Household Income: $36,445 (U.S.: $53,889)

Median Home Value: $94,000 (U.S.: $178,600)

Average Monthly Rent: $685 (U.S.: $1,004)

Unemployment Rate: 5.3% (U.S.: 4.9%)

Highlight: Graceland

Oklahoma City

City Population: 631,346

Cost of Living: 15.5% below U.S. average

Median Household Income: $47,779 (U.S.: $53,889)

Median Home Value: $138,600 (U.S.: $178,600)

Average Monthly Rent: $818 (U.S.: $1,004)

Unemployment Rate: 4.2% (U.S.: 4.9%)

Highlight: NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder

See the full list of the cheapest U.S. cities to live in.

Dan Burrows
Senior Investing Writer, Kiplinger.com

Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the august publication full time in 2016.

A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of SmartMoney, MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, InvestorPlace and DailyFinance. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Consumer Reports, Senior Executive and Boston magazine, and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among other publications. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and hosted a weekly video segment on equities.

Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.

In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities, funds, macroeconomics, demographics, real estate, cost of living indexes and more.

Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.

Disclosure: Dan does not trade stocks or other securities. Rather, he dollar-cost averages into cheap funds and index funds and holds them forever in tax-advantaged accounts.