The 10 Cheapest Eugene, OR Neighborhoods To Live In For 2024


The cheapest Eugene neighborhoods are Active Bethel and West Eugene for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

Worst Neighborhoods In Eugene
Source: Wikipedia User Visitor7 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Eugene might be more expensive than living in rural Oregon, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Eugene neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Eugene are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Eugene For 2024

  1. Active Bethel
  2. West Eugene
  3. Churchill Area
  4. Southeast
  5. Santa Clara
  6. Trainsong
  7. River Road
  8. Far West
  9. Laurel Hill Valley
  10. Industrial Corridor

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Eugene for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Active Bethel looks to be the cheapest Eugene neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Eugene. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Eugene that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Eugene.

For more Oregon reading, check out:


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Eugene For 2024

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 26,225
Cost Of Living Index: 105 (3rd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.2 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.022 (15th cheapest)
More on Active Bethel: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 4,394
Cost Of Living Index: 106 (4th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.7 (10th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (6th cheapest)
More on West Eugene: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 9,308
Cost Of Living Index: 117 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.4 (7th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.011 (cheapest)
More on Churchill Area: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 11,883
Cost Of Living Index: 120 (16th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.1 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (4th cheapest)
More on Southeast: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 17,963
Cost Of Living Index: 116 (13th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.8 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (8th cheapest)
More on Santa Clara: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 1,299
Cost Of Living Index: 104 (2nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.3 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.025 (17th cheapest)
More on Trainsong: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 14,597
Cost Of Living Index: 110 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.3 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.021 (14th cheapest)
More on River Road: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 4,506
Cost Of Living Index: 107 (6th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 5.4 (12th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (9th cheapest)
More on Far West: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 591
Cost Of Living Index: 134 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.3 (5th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (3rd cheapest)
More on Laurel Hill Valley: Data | Real Estate

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 3,315
Cost Of Living Index: 114 (10th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 4.6 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (11th cheapest)
More on Industrial Corridor: Data | Real Estate

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Eugene Hoods In 2024

To rank the cheapest places to live in Eugene, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 21 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Eugene.” We’re lookin’ at you, Active Bethel.

We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Eugene. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Eugene

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Eugene where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Eugene are Active Bethel, West Eugene, Churchill Area, Southeast, Santa Clara, Trainsong, River Road, Far West, Laurel Hill Valley, and Industrial Corridor.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Eugene aren’t all cheap. South University takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Eugene.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Eugene are South University, Fairmount, Downtown, Jefferson Westside, and U Of O Campus.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more Oregon reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Eugene For 2024

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Active Bethel 105
2 West Eugene 106
3 Churchill Area 117
4 Southeast 120
5 Santa Clara 116
6 Trainsong 104
7 River Road 110
8 Far West 107
9 Laurel Hill Valley 134
10 Industrial Corridor 114
11 Crest Drive 122
12 Cal Young 115
13 Harlow 114
14 Amazon 129
15 Whiteaker 107
16 Friendly Area 121
17 U Of O Campus 103
18 Jefferson Westside 115
19 Downtown 109
20 Fairmount 136
21 South University 120
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.