Most Affordable States
States ranked by income-to-rent ratio, highest first.
Data: 2026-Q2 · BLS · HUD · KFF North Dakota · ND
2 Income/rent 5.4x income/rent
Nebraska · NE
3 Income/rent 5.0x income/rent
South Dakota · SD
Income/rent 4.9x income/rent
Rankings derived from Census ACS 2024, Tax Foundation 2025, and C2ER Cost of Living Index.
FAQ
Most Affordable States — FAQ
How are these rankings calculated?
Most Affordable States is ranked by income/rent, computed at build time directly from verified public data. Rankings derived from Census ACS 2024, Tax Foundation 2025, and C2ER Cost of Living Index. Only the top 3 are shown here.
Why does this only show 3 states?
Top Rankings highlights the top 3 in each category. The underlying ranking is computed the same way for every tracked location; this page focuses on the leaders.