- Killeen, Texas, ranked as the most affordable, fastest-growing city in the US.
- Five cities in Texas made the top 20, while cities in South Dakota and Tennessee made the top five.
Killeen, Texas, a city of 154,000 residents, is the US's most affordable and fastest-growing city.
This is according to GOBankingRates, which analyzed the 200 biggest cities by total population via the 2022 American Community Survey. In addition to Killeen, Lubbock was the second Texas city in the top five, which also included cities in South Dakota, Tennessee, and Oklahoma.
Many of the fastest-growing cities on the list are in the south, and many are not in the top 100 cities by population. Many Americans are fleeing increasingly expensive cities in search of smaller cities with lower home prices and costs of living.
Texas had five cities in the top 20, more than any other state. Killeen, the home of the Fort Hood military base, is below average in Texas for median income at about $57,000 with home prices under $226,000, putting the city's overall cost of living at 83.7% of the US average. The city has experienced 9.4% population growth between 2017 and 2022.
Lubbock, the second-highest-ranked Texas city on the list, has one of the lowest population growth rates on the list at 4.4% between 2017 and 2022. Its cost of living is quite low — the average home price is $204,500, lower than most of the top 20. Average annual expenditures come in at slightly over $59,000, well below the US average of about $73,000.
Other Texas cities in the top 20 include Fort Worth, McKinney, Frisco — which had a 30% five-year population growth rate.
Second overall was Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the most populous city in the state. The city has experienced a five-year population growth rate of 13.5% with an average home price of $312,000. Sioux Falls's total expenditures amount to over $66,000, still about $7,000 below the national average.
Clarksville, Tennessee, ranked third and made the top 20 alongside Murfreesboro, which ranked 15th. Clarksville experienced a 13.6% five-year population growth rate with an average home value of $295,000.
Oklahoma City, one of the largest cities by population in the top 20, ranked fourth with an average home value of $194,700 and an 8.3% five-year population growth rate.
No cities in the Northeast or on the West Coast made the top 20. North Carolina and Florida had three in the top 20.
Between 2021 and 2022, more people moved into Florida than any other state at 739,000, according to Census Bureau data. Texas was second at 668,300 people moving in, while North Carolina was fourth at 341,600.
Have you recently moved to a new state? Contact this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.