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 St. Louis might be more expensive than living in rural Missouri, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those St. Louis 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 St. Louis are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in St. Louis for 2024? According to the most recent census data, Kingsway West looks to be the cheapest St. Louis 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 St. Louis. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.
Read on to see how we determined the places around St. Louis that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in St. Louis.
For more Missouri reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In Missouri
- Cheapest Places To Live In Missouri
- Cheapest Cities To Live In America
- Cheapest States To Live In America
Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table
The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In St. Louis For 2024
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Population: 2,327
Cost Of Living Index: 76 (9th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.0 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.012 (5th cheapest)
More on Kingsway West: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 3,215
Cost Of Living Index: 79 (20th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 0.9 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.01 (3rd cheapest)
More on Kingsway East: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 2,784
Cost Of Living Index: 76 (9th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.2 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.017 (30th cheapest)
More on North Point: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 1,394
Cost Of Living Index: 73 (cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.2 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.028 (65th cheapest)
More on Hyde Park: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 5,099
Cost Of Living Index: 76 (9th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.6 (9th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.024 (55th cheapest)
More on Wells-Goodfellow: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 5,442
Cost Of Living Index: 77 (15th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.0 (16th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (43rd cheapest)
More on Gravois Park: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 1,028
Cost Of Living Index: 91 (62nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.7 (13th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.008 (cheapest)
More on Oarondelet Park: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 1,924
Cost Of Living Index: 76 (9th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.4 (25th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.02 (42nd cheapest)
More on Near North Riverfront: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 3,207
Cost Of Living Index: 78 (18th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.3 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.024 (52nd cheapest)
More on Walnut Park West: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 1,879
Cost Of Living Index: 85 (42nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.1 (18th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (18th cheapest)
More on Franz Park: Data | Real Estate
Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest St. Louis Hoods In 2024
To rank the cheapest places to live in St. Louis, 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 77 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 St. Louis.” We’re lookin’ at you, Kingsway West.
We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in St. Louis. 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 St. Louis
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in St. Louis where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in St. Louis are Kingsway West, Kingsway East, North Point, Hyde Park, Wells-Goodfellow, Gravois Park, Oarondelet Park, Near North Riverfront, Walnut Park West, and Franz Park.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in St. Louis aren’t all cheap. Visitation Park takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in St. Louis.
The most expensive neighborhoods in St. Louis are Visitation Park, Kings Oak, Central West End, Cheltenham, and Skinker-Debaliviere.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.
For more Missouri reading, check out:
- Most Dangerous Cities in Missouri
- Richest Cities In Missouri
- Safest Places In Missouri
- Worst Places To Live In Missouri
