4 Northeast Cities Where You Can Buy a Home for Under $100K

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While the Northeast region of the United States has some great cities — hello, Boston and New York — well-loved food traditions and top sights to see, the cost of living is among the highest in the United States, and it is climbing. Home to the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, the Northeast region has seen a 6.3% increase in housing costs over the last year, and it is often considered one of the most expensive areas to live in the United States.

GOBankingRates has identified four cities in the region where you can still purchase a house for $100,000 or less. These four cities are standouts in a region known for its higher cost of living and goods.

As part of this research, GOBankingRates located the 100 largest housing markets across the United States, based on Zillow reports, and then identified total active listings as well as active listings under $100,000, sourced from Realtor.com. Calculating the percentage of all listings under $100,000 revealed a list of the top 20 cities where you can buy a house for less than $100,000.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• Total active listings: 382
• Active listings under $100,000: 27
• Percentage of listings under $100,000: 7.07%

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

• Total active listings: 2,039
• Active listings under $100,000: 314
• Percentage of listings under $100,000: 15.40%

Buffalo, New York

• Total active listings: 513
• Active listings under $100,000: 108
• Percentage of listings under $100,000: 21.05%

Rochester, New York

• Total active listings: 253
• Active listings under $100,000: 107
• Percentage of listings under $100,000: 42.29%

Buying a Home Under $100K

It is worth noting that most of these cities do not have many active listings — Rochester, for instance, only had 253 — so finding a house for $100,000 or less could still be a challenge, even if the percentage of listings under $100,000 is significant. You can start by looking at listings online to see if any potential options meet your criteria and pique your interest.

Keep in mind that the average sales price of a new home in the United States was nearly $493,000 and that the median sales price of a new home was approaching $412,300 as of July 2024, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The median sale price of a home in the United States actually reached an all-time high in June 2024, which indicates that finding a house on a modest budget could be a challenging pursuit in any city or region until the housing market becomes more buyer-friendly.

In better news, the recent 50-basis-point cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve may support more movement in the housing market as mortgages — hopefully — become more affordable.

With that in mind, fans of the Northeast can center their house hunt in Pennsylvania and New York in hopes of finding a new home that meets their budget, needs and interests.

Methodology: To find the best cities where you can buy a house for under $100,000, GOBankingRates first found the top 100 largest housing markets, according to Zillow. For each housing market, GOBankingRates found: (1) total active listings and (2) active listings under $100,000, sourced from Realtor.com. Then GOBankingRates calculated the percentage of listings under $100,000 and sorted the data to show the highest availability of listings under $100,000. All data is up to date as of May 13, 2024.

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