While home prices and mortgage rates remain high in much of the country, a May 19 WalletHub report identifies the most affordable U.S. cities, though it comes with some caveats.

The Miami-based personal finance website recently analyzed 300 cities using 10 key metrics, including home purchase and maintenance costs, taxes, insurance, vacancy rates, and cost of living expenses.

The results indicated that Flint, Michigan, was number one in terms of affordability, relative to local income. Detroit; Surprise and Yuma, Arizona; and Akron, Ohio, followed—all falling in the top five ranking. Arizona’s Mesa, Peoria, and Gilbert also ranked within the nation’s top 25 affordable home markets, as did Ohio’s Cleveland, Toledo, and Dayton.

“When deciding where to buy a home, prices alone aren’t a good enough indicator of how affordable things will be,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said in the report. “You also have to consider how the average price compares to a typical income in the area, plus things like the overall cost of living and the costs of maintenance and taxes.”

Lupo noted that Flint also has the lowest cost-of-living index in the country and among the highest inventory, as nearly 20 percent of all homes there remain vacant. Realtor.com reported Flint’s median listing price at $56,500.

WalletHub attributes the unusually low price to the city’s water crisis from 10 years ago. However, the report states that Flint’s drinking water has complied with Environmental Protection Agency standards for the past six years.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the city’s water became contaminated in 2014 when the City of Flint changed its municipal water supply source from Lake Huron to the Flint River. The move caused distribution pipes to corrode, leaking lead and other contaminants into the municipal water supply. Two years later, residents were advised not to drink local water, and the original distribution was reconnected to Lake Huron.

In April, the City of Flint announced that it was expanding ongoing efforts to develop a long-term water stability plan for the city.

“If you look at the Top 10, you will see a number of Rust Belt cities that were once thriving manufacturing hubs, but are now struggling economically,” Lupo told The Epoch Times. As a result, he said, housing in these cities remains relatively inexpensive as local governments work to revitalize them and attract more homeowners.

Calib Reits, an investor with City Lights Home Buyers in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told The Epoch Times that, despite past problems in Flint and other cities, these places are among the few where the math still works for average Americans.

“While these markets aren’t the flashiest, they rank high on the affordability scale and are still accessible to the average buyer,” he said.

Sergio Aguinaga, owner and founder of Michigan Houses For Cash, told The Epoch Times that he’s not surprised that Flint and Detroit topped the list. “Both Flint and Detroit populations have been declining for a while now, which has kept inventory high,” he said.  

However, Aguinaga has seen buyers shift their focus to more affordable cities as housing costs in many markets have surged over the past few years. “Affordability has become the new luxury in this market, and people are finally realizing they may have to look outside the big ‘hot’ cities to get ahead financially,” he said.

Other notable cities listed in WalletHub’s top 25 affordable locations include: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Montgomery, Alabama; Palm Bay, Florida; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Louisville, Kentucky.

With five of the top affordable cities located in Arizona and four in Ohio, some real estate analysts say the two states appeal to homebuyers for different reasons.

Ben Mizes, president of Clever Real Estate, an online platform, told The Epoch Times that many Ohio markets are relatively affordable due to a large supply of older homes and slower price appreciation, while Arizona housing markets have cooled after periods of rapid price growth.

With a median listing price of $444,000, according to Realtor.com, Arizona’s Surprise took third place as the most affordable city in the United States, relative to local income. The city ranked 18th in median home price appreciation among the 300 cities studied, according to the WalletHub report. Meanwhile, it has the eighth-lowest median real estate tax rate.

Ranked fourth, Yuma, Arizona, has a median home price of $355,000.

Ohio’s Akron, in fifth place, has a median home price of $144,900, while homes in tenth-place Cleveland sell for a median of $142,500.

Overall, the WalletHub report points to the Midwest and South as continuously stable locations for those seeking more affordable housing options. 

“You have to look for a market that can sustain stable growth over a long period of time, and one that offers job stability and a good quality of life,” Reits said. “This is why the Midwest cities have such an advantage. They provide plenty of breathing room because they weren’t expensive to begin with.”

On the other end, WalletHub ranked 21 California cities among the nation’s most expensive markets for homebuyers. Santa Barbara took the top spot, followed by Santa Monica, Costa Mesa, Glendale, and Berkeley.

Realtor.com puts Santa Barbara’s median listing price at $2.5 million. New York City, with a median home price of $825,000, ranked eighth among the nation’s least affordable cities.