10 Cheapest Places to Live on the East Coast

If you’re planning to move east, it’s likely you’ve heard stories about the high cost of living on the East Coast. This tag with a capital E for “expensive” has become somewhat of a scarlet letter, labeling an entire region. You may find yourself asking, “What are the cheapest places to live on the East Coast?”

In this post, we’ll provide a list of the most affordable East Coast communities. We’ll also explain what factors impact your cost of living, and share a handy set of tools to help you calculate living expenses as you plan your next move.

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What impacts cost of living on the East Coast?

If you’re planning to relocate to an East Coast city, the big question will be, “Can I afford to live there?” You’ll need to assess the cost of living, or what the market data experts at Statista describe as “the monetary cost of goods and services necessary to maintaining a certain standard of living.”

The cost to live somewhere typically includes the expenses you incur for:

  • Housing (rent/mortgage)
  • Energy (utilities)
  • Food (groceries)
  • Transportation (vehicles or transit systems)
  • Healthcare (doctors, hospitals, etc.)

However, it extends beyond these basics to cover other aspects, such as:

  • Clothing
  • Education
  • Childcare
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle choices

Ultimately, your standard of living in any East Coast city will largely be influenced by your salary (or income), and your debts. If you’re balancing on a financial tightrope but want to live on the East Coast, let’s take a look at some communities where you might find pockets of affordability.

10 of the cheapest places to live on the East Coast

Our list of the 10 most affordable places to live on the East Coast was derived from a report by GOBankingRates. Their research experts identified these locations by combining data from the following sources:

Because HomeLight is a real estate solutions company, we’ve ranked each of these cities based on average home values, from lowest to highest. We’ve also included a Sperling’s BestPlaces Cost of Living score for each city.

How does a cost of living score work? Most cost of living (COL) scores or index rankings are standardized with a baseline value of 100. Other locations are then compared against this benchmark. For example, an area with a COL score of 115 would signify that living there is 15% more expensive than the base location, while an index of 85 indicates it’s 15% less expensive.

1. Spartanburg, South Carolina 📍 

Average home value: $220,890

Sperling’s cost of living score: 84.8

Cost of living comparison: 15.2% below national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $36,380

2. Buffalo, New York 📍

Average home value: $223,805

Sperling’s cost of living score: 92.1

Cost of living comparison: 7.9% below national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $39,240

3. Columbia, South Carolina 📍

Average home value: $228,201

Sperling’s cost of living score: 87.4

Cost of living comparison: 12.6% below national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $39,240

4. Salisbury, Maryland 📍

Average home value: $252,259

Sperling’s cost of living score: 83.7

Cost of living comparison: 16.3% below national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $42,480

5. Daytona Beach, Florida 📍

Average home value: $266,067

Sperling’s cost of living score: 94.9

Cost of living comparison: 5.1% below national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $46,800

6. Springfield, Massachusetts 📍

Average home value: $274,349

Sperling’s cost of living score: 96.2

Cost of living comparison: 3.8% below national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $46,080

7. Hickory, North Carolina 📍

Average home value: $286,223

Sperling’s cost of living score: 89

Cost of living comparison: 11% below national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $48,960

8. Savannah, Georgia 📍

Average home value: $317,712

Sperling’s cost of living score: 90.2

Cost of living comparison: 9.8% below national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $49,680

9. Trenton, New Jersey 📍

Average home value: $323,547

Sperling’s cost of living score: 104.6

Cost of living comparison: 4.6% above national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $48,240

10. Lakeland, Florida 📍

Average home value: $324,320

Sperling’s cost of living score: 91.6

Cost of living comparison: 8.4% below national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $54,000

East Coast runner-up cities for affordable rental housing

Sometimes you need more options, and perhaps you’re primarily focused on rental housing costs. If the cities above aren’t to your liking, or if you want to test drive a community by renting before buying a home, we went back to last year’s GOBankingRates report to build a list of runner-up cities you might want to consider.

City Average monthly income Average 1-bedroom rent
1. Lynchburg, Virginia $5,664 $1,216
2. Roanoke, Virginia $5,664 $1,264
3. Newport News, Virginia $5,664 $1,383
4. Greensboro, North Carolina $4,940 1,401
5. Richmond, Virginia $5,664 $1,498
6. Hagerstown, Maryland $5,848 $1,178
7. Rome, Georgia $5,156 $1,131
8. Hampton, Virginia $5,664 $1,485
9. Jacksonville, North Carolina $4,940 $1,197
10. Norfolk, Virginia $5,664 $1,562

Source: GoBankingRates 2023 report (see 7 more affordable East Coast cities)

Three expensive East Coast cities for comparison

1. Miami Beach, Florida 📍

Average home value: $2,596,041

Sperling’s cost of living score: 118.9

Cost of living comparison: 18.9% above national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $92,520

2. Folly Beach, South Carolina 📍

Average home value: $1,352,921

Sperling’s cost of living score: 112

Cost of living comparison: 12% above national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $229,680

3. Sag Harbor, New York 📍

Average home value: $2,008,969

Sperling’s cost of living score: 147.1

Cost of living comparison: 47.1% above national average

Annual income to live comfortably: $332,640

Least and most expensive states: According to Statista’s nationwide cost of living index, the least expensive states are Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Mississippi (the most affordable) holds a COL score of 84.5. The most expensive states are Hawaii, the District of Columbia, and Massachusetts, which have COL scores of 184, 152.2, and 149.7, respectively.

How Much Is Your Home Worth Now?

Home values have rapidly increased in recent years. How much is your current home worth now? Get a ballpark estimate from HomeLight’s free Home Value Estimator.

Try a cost of living calculator

A cost of living calculator can provide you with a preliminary snapshot of how much money you might need to maintain your current standard of living in an East Coast community. These free online tools use cost estimates to provide a comparison based on income and regional costs for housing, food, transportation, healthcare, and other necessities in the two locations you select.

Examples of online cost of living calculators include:

Additional wage and budgeting tools

  • Living Wage Calculator: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has created a handy Living Wage Calculator. Just select your desired state and city, and the calculator will estimate the local wage a full-time worker needs to cover the costs of a family’s basic needs.
  • Family Budget Calculator: The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) maintains a Family Budget Calculator that measures the income a family needs to attain a modest yet adequate standard of living. You’ll see estimated budgets based on community-specific costs for 10 family types in all counties and metro areas in the country.

You can find other helpful online tools to estimate everything from moving costs to how much of a down payment you’ll need to buy a house. We’ve provided links to some of our favorite resources below.

Free moving cost calculators

Free HomeLight resources for homebuyers

HomeLight’s Buy Before You Sell program lets you unlock the equity in your current home so you can move into your new East Coast home now — and sell your old house with peace of mind and on your own timeline. Watch the short video below to learn more.

Free HomeLight resources for home sellers

Don’t forget to measure ‘livability’

When you’re looking for a new place to live, the cost of living is a crucial factor, but so is livability. Will you enjoy living there? Does the community fit your lifestyle?

AARP provides a Livability Index Search Page that scores communities and even neighborhoods nationwide for services and amenities that impact your life. You can check your current city score or others where you’d like to live on the East Coast.

The livability index Community Finder tool allows you to filter by location, community size, livability measures, and other features, such as state and local plans to create age-friendly communities.

Partner with a top agent to find your East Coast home

As you plan your move, HomeLight can connect you with a top-performing, trusted real estate agent in the East Coast city where you’d like to live. We analyze over 27 million transactions and thousands of reviews to determine which agent is best for you based on your needs.

For the best of both worlds — buying and selling simultaneously — check out HomeLight’s Buy Before You Sell program. It takes the uncertainty out of your next home purchase.

Header Image Source: (Kathleen Culbertson / Unsplash)