• Median home price: $153,000
• Median income: $71,500
• % of homes sold that are "affordable"*: 93.2%

About 40 miles north of Salt Lake City, Ogden is the most affordable metro area to buy a home in the U.S. This is the first time Ogden tops the Housing Opportunity Index. The city offers an enviable combo: Incomes are 10% higher than the national median, while home prices are about 14% lower.

Ordinarily in places growing as quickly as Ogden -- the population has jumped 24% since 2000 -- demand for housing pushes prices higher. But much of the land here is on the now-exposed bed of the shrinking Great Salt Lake, meaning it's easy and cheap to build on. A new three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home might go for as little as $130,000.

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