Newbie owners go smallMedian income: $53,500
Affordability score: 93.3%
During the Midwest's heyday, Youngstown was a manufacturing Eden. Its factory workers were among the highest paid.
Today, most of the steel mills and other heavy industry is history, and the city's population has contracted. In June, 11.9% of workers in the metro area were unemployed.
There are lots of homes for sale -- from modest row houses to huge mansions. As a result, median home prices stay very low. That takes much of the angst out of buying a home. Many young renters, for example, become home buyers. When your mortgage payments can be less than $500 a month for a three-bedroom house, why not?
That has not prevented loss of housing stock in the area. As a result, Youngstown has adapted a "rightsizing" plan that acknowledges the city is shrinking. This program includes cutting services to areas of low density and even buying out the last few homeowners on a street or in a neighborhood, tearing up the streets and repurposing the land for agricultural or open-space uses.
NEXT: Fifth place: Buffalo, N.Y.
