10 cheapest places to live in the U.S.

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McAllen, Texas

The sixth edition of the Council for Community and Economic Research's Cost of Living Index ranks McAllen, Texas, as the second most affordable place for a professional standard of living.

McAllen's index of 85.6 is nearly 15 percent below the national average. The Census Bureau reported that from 2000 to 2010, McAllen grew 39.3 percent, which made the city the seventh fastest growing in America.

Half-gallon of milk - $2.34
Monthly rent - $740
Home price - $202,994
Gallon of gas - $3.288
Haircut - $9
Movie ticket - $9.08
Bottle of wine - $6.14

Living in these places costs less because they are worth less. California, as a rule, New England as a rule, and New York as a rule cost more because they are WORTH MORE. As for the crappy places listed on this "list", they all suck. If you live in one of these hell-holes by choice, then you deserve all the humidity, bugs, snakes, poverty, and **** poor quality of life that goes with it.


SoTxDude replies:: linkicon reporticon emailicon; You speak of snakes, poverty, humidity and bugs as if they dont exist on whatever imaginary planet that you inhabit. The last time that I checked; New England, New York and especially California encompass EVERYthing that you mentioned.

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janegregory says:: I have stayed at Harlington Texas for a year during my student years and love the place. And as rightly mentioned its cheap :); reply

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bigwaterAQ says:: Of course, any list is somewhat arbitrary, because there is probably no perfect place to live. And no list can cover every possible town or city that might have merit, so I'd like to offer one more place. It's where I live... Fallbrook (Bonsall) California. It's in Southern California. Now wait... I know that many will quickly dismiss this area as either too crowded or overpriced, but here we avoid both issues. I like to say we are perhaps the last undiscovered near-coastal community in Southern California. Our local paper had a writeup on how baby boomers are coming here to escape other more crowded and higher priced California cities -- http://www.thevillagenews.com/story/70975/.; reply

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shereea100 says:: After growing up in Chicago, all I have to say is I have never experienced so much racism before in all my years on earth. I now reside in the Northern VA area and the area is over-priced, cost of living is about 4x's above normal, worst than living in a third world country. Americans have a very hard time living, especially taxpayers. So for you all to complain about where you live, take a trip to the DC metro area.; reply

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Larval says:: Oh hay... look at that. Another lazy, crappy web design that requires 11 page refreshes to view an "article." with a few paragraphs of information surrounded by 90% filler and ads. And no print button to avoid the BS.

Gotta rack up those impressions any way possible, eh?; reply

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TxChile says:: I agree with ConnieJanelle, lived in: VanNuys,California;Miami,Florida;Phoenix, Arizona;Kansas City, Missouri: Las Vegas, Nevada and always return to Dallas, Texas. Why? Despite of strict highway laws, I have a job, but now the taxes are getting out of hand and would like to retire soon and still live well. Any suggestions for a single female?; reply

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kball80 says:: I lived in McAllen Tx for 5 years and unless you work in the medical field or some other proffesional job as such you are gonna have a hard time reaping the cost of living benefits. I work in construction and most companies involving trades in this part of the country hire a lot of illegal immigrants at very low pay which in turn causes me to get very low pay as well. I was turned down for other jobs just cause I didnt speak Spanish. So if you are a blue-collar worker then I say good luck! it may be okay if your willing to get paid minimum wage and have to live with 12 other people to afford even the low cost of living in most small Texas cities. And you better learn some Spanish. Oh and I didnt even mention the drug cartels and the huge possibility that your kids could end up on drugs in South Texas because of the huge availability and low costs due to the location of being on the border of Mexico; reply

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kball80 says:: I lived in McAllen Tx for 5 years and unless you work in the medical field or some other proffesional job as such you are gonna have a hard time reaping the cost of living benefits. I work in construction and most companies involving trades in this part of the country hire a lot of illegal immigrants at very low pay which in turn causes me to get very low pay as well. I was turned down for other jobs just cause I didnt speak Spanish. So if you are a blue-collar worker then I say good luck! it may be okay if your willing to get paid minimum wage and have to live with 12 other people to afford even the low cost of living in most small Texas cities. And you better learn some Spanish. Oh and I didnt even mention the drug cartels and the huge possibility that your kids could end up on drugs in South Texas because of the huge availability and low costs due to the location of being on the border of Mexico; reply

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kball80 says:: I lived in McAllen Tx for 5 years and unless you work in the medical field or some other proffesional job as such you are gonna have a hard time reaping the cost of living benefits. I work in construction and most companies involving trades in this part of the country hire a lot of illegal immigrants at very low pay which in turn causes me to get very low pay as well. I was turned down for other jobs just cause I didnt speak Spanish. So if you are a blue-collar worker then I say good luck! it may be okay if your willing to get paid minimum wage and have to live with 12 other people to afford even the low cost of living in most small Texas cities. And you better learn some Spanish. Oh and I didnt even mention the drug cartels and the huge possibility that your kids could end up on drugs in South Texas because of the huge availability and low costs due to the location of being on the border of Mexico; reply

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Ms Clarity says:: Most of these places have many things in common: Mosquitos, humidy, sweat, bigotry, racist, hate of women's rights to be a person not a thing. And every other invalidating of humanity thing they keep coming up with.; reply