A first home under $300,000 is still possible in a large part of the country. In the Zillow Research data through August 2026, 77 of the 195 metros tracked here have a typical home value (ZHVI) below that line. The question is not only where the number is low, but where a buyer with a modest budget can also negotiate. This page answers both, from the data files behind every metro page.
Two things about the figures. ZHVI is a modeled typical value for the whole housing stock, not a list price, so the homes you see advertised will spread above and below it. And the ranking below uses the share of active listings that have taken a price cut, which is the most direct measure of seller pressure in the set, with days to pending as the tiebreaker.
Ten metros under $300k where sellers are cutting most, August 2026
| # | Metro | Typical home value (ZHVI) | Value, year over year | Listings with a price cut | Days to pending | Typical rent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indianapolis, IN | $293,506 | +1.1% | 34.5% | 17 | $1,552 |
| 2 | Columbia, SC | $256,132 | +1.7% | 33.0% | 27 | $1,559 |
| 3 | Clarksville, TN | $291,739 | +0.1% | 32.1% | 32 | $1,342 |
| 4 | Louisville, KY | $280,129 | +1.5% | 32.1% | 15 | $1,348 |
| 5 | Des Moines, IA | $294,192 | +0.6% | 31.9% | 27 | $1,297 |
| 6 | Roanoke, VA | $299,426 | +3.6% | 31.9% | 21 | $1,425 |
| 7 | Kalamazoo, MI | $278,194 | +4.4% | 31.5% | 10 | $1,280 |
| 8 | Spartanburg, SC | $276,318 | +1.5% | 31.4% | 40 | $1,510 |
| 9 | Evansville, IN | $227,052 | +3.9% | 31.4% | 16 | $1,121 |
| 10 | Kingsport, TN | $246,243 | +1.3% | 31.3% | 20 | $1,320 |
In each of these, more sellers have conceded on price than in the typical metro, and the typical home value still clears the $300,000 bar with room. Open the metro page before you draw a conclusion: a cut share that has been rising for months means leverage is still building, while one that has peaked means sellers have already finished adjusting.
The ten cheapest metros outright
| # | Metro | Typical home value (ZHVI) | Value, year over year | Listings with a price cut | Days to pending | Typical rent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charleston, WV | $150,969 | +1.6% | 23.9% | 14 | $1,229 |
| 2 | Huntington, WV | $166,303 | +1.4% | 26.0% | 16 | $1,071 |
| 3 | Peoria, IL | $174,841 | +6.7% | 27.0% | 8 | $1,178 |
| 4 | Youngstown, OH | $177,110 | +5.4% | 25.6% | 19 | $1,026 |
| 5 | Shreveport, LA | $186,446 | +3.4% | 25.0% | 28 | $1,330 |
| 6 | Beaumont, TX | $188,313 | +3.5% | 23.4% | 26 | $1,283 |
| 7 | McAllen, TX | $193,007 | -0.2% | 18.1% | 75 | $1,122 |
| 8 | Davenport, IA | $196,628 | +5.2% | 24.6% | 11 | $1,009 |
| 9 | Flint, MI | $196,792 | +4.7% | 30.2% | 12 | $1,063 |
| 10 | Mobile, AL | $197,078 | +0.4% | 26.7% | 29 | $1,308 |
Cheapest is not automatically best. A low value with a fast time to pending and few cuts is a market where cheap homes are competed for; Rockford, IL, Erie, PA and Syracuse, NY are the quickest to pending among the under-$300k group, and a buyer there should expect to pay close to asking.
Where values are falling
Five of the 77 metros under $300,000 show a typical value below a year ago: Lakeland, FL, Ocala, FL, San Antonio, TX, Killeen, TX and McAllen, TX. A falling value is good news on the day you buy and less so on the day you sell, so a first-time buyer planning to stay a few years should weigh it against the rent they would otherwise pay.
Rent as the yardstick
The median typical rent across the under-$300k metros is $1,348 a month. The rent column above is Zillow's rent index for the metro, a modeled typical asking rent, and it is the number to compare against a mortgage payment on the typical home value at today's rate. Where rent is high relative to value, buying tends to pencil out sooner; where rent is low, renting while a cutting market finishes adjusting can be the better first move.
How to use these lists
Pick two or three metros, open their pages, and read the same three series a year back: typical value, price cut share and days to pending. The direction of the last two tells you whether the leverage in the table above is still there. The most price cuts ranking and the slowest markets ranking rank all 195 metros on those series, and the methodology page defines each one.
This page is regenerated from the same data files as the rankings, so the numbers here match the metro pages for the month named in the title.