These are 10 of the cheapest places in the US you can score a beach house
- Gulfport, Mississippi, is the most affordable coastal town in the US to buy a house, per Realtor.com.
- Properties close to the beach in the Gulf of Mexico city cost, on average, $224,900.
If you want to buy a house in a coastal town in the US, you'd get the most bang for your buck by going for one in Gulfport, Mississippi, according to a new report.
The average price for a house that is located within a mile of the beach in Gulfport is $144 per square foot, making it the cheapest coastal town, per Realtor.com's report. The average cost of a coastal house there was $224,900, it said.
Gulfport is located on the Gulf of Mexico and has become a tourism hub, with activities including fishing tours and boat charters, an aquarium, and the neighboring casino town of Biloxi.
It had a population of around 72,000 as of July 2022, per estimates from the US Census Bureau. It's home to Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, the state's second largest, with flights to airports including Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Dallas-Fort Worth.
Realtor.com calculated the most affordable coastal towns by compiling data on homes listed on its site within a one-mile radius of beaches in the US over the past year, and finding the towns with the lowest price per square foot.
It only included towns where at least 50 properties within a mile of the water had been listed in the past year. Its list is limited to just one beach town per state, and also includes some bayside areas as well as towns next to the ocean.
Here are 10 of the most affordable coastal and bayside towns, per Realtor.com's ranking, alongside the median price per square foot:
Though the listing prices may be low, waterfront properties face the risk of flooding, which is increasing as climate change gets worse – and they have higher insurance fees than inland homes accordingly.
Newport News, a city in Virginia with a population of around 184,000 near Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, and the Atlantic Ocean, comes in second place. New London, Connecticut, is third.