Key stat: A 4-bed, 2-1/2-bath house costs $132,333
The Rust Belt and small cities in the upper Midwest offer many of the nation's least expensive housing markets. A house in Minot costs about one-fourteenth what a similar home costs in Beverly Hills or Santa Monica.
Most of the least expensive cities have large tracts of cheap land on their outskirts, facilitating the development of inexpensive housing.