3 St. Louis Suburbs Rank Among America’s Cheapest Homes

If you're looking to buy a home not just in Missouri, but anywhere in America, there are 3 St. Louis suburbs that are among the 10 most affordable places to buy a home. However, there's a reason why many of those homes are cheaper than other places.

Redfin just shared an interesting list of the most affordable places to buy a home in America. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there are 3 St. Louis metro areas that made their top 10. They factored in the payment to income ratio required for home buying, the median home sale price in each town, median household income, the average monthly mortgage payment and (wait for it) the poverty rate. Here are the St. Louis metro areas that made the top 10:

1 - Bellefontaine Neighbors, MO

2 - Ferguson, MO

10 - Spanish Lake, MO

If you only look at the home sale prices and the monthly mortgage cost, all of those St. Louis area locations are very affordable with the top 2 having an average home cost of just over $100,000. The unfortunate aspect is the poverty rate where the top 2 have over 22% and 24% respectively. Before you go putting an offer in on a home in any of these St. Louis metro places, you should check the crime rate which is well above the national average. They're not all overflowing with danger and there are good places along with the bad, but there's a reason why property values are lower there than other parts of America.

It's a good thing that so many Missouri places are considered affordable. It's not a good thing when you look at the reason why in some cases. Buyers can find great and safe deals, but buyers should always beware.