15 Most Expensive Small Towns in the U.S.

Related: 12 Fastest-Growing Small Cities in America: 2020

Many Americans think that town life is simpler, more idyllic and less expensive than big-city life.

LendingTree, an online loan marketplace, conducted research to determine whether towns with populations of less than 50,000 really are less expensive than cities.

It found that in numerous instances, towns are even more expensive than the cities they are located near.

The study ranked the 50 U.S. towns with the most expensive median home values.

It also looked at the median income in those towns to determine how attainable homeownership is for the average resident.

“What we found,” LendingTree said in a statement this week: “The towns with the most expensive home prices are unaffordable to median income earners who live in those areas.”

LendingTree said the study indicated that town residents can experience the same kinds of issues related to housing affordability and wealth inequality as city dwellers — and sometimes they are more prevalent in towns than in cities.

The research showed that an average of the median home prices across the 50 towns in the study was $271,224, compared with the average median home prices of $269,180 in the nation’s 50 largest cities.

And although the most expensive towns in the U.S. are often more expensive than the largest cities, people who live in towns tend to earn less income than they would in a city.

The median household income across the nation’s most expensive towns averages $60,150, nearly $7,000 less than the average median household income across the nation’s 50 largest cities.

See the gallery for the 15 most expensive towns in the U.S. ranked by home prices.

— Related on ThinkAdvisor:

• Millionaires Love These 10 Small Towns
• 12 Best States for the Middle Class
• 12 Fastest-Growing Large Cities in America: 2020

Michael S. Fischer