A new study from financial technology company, SmartAsset, ranks the most affordable places to live in Kentucky. Vine Grove ranked No.2 among Kentucky communities in SmartAsset’s analysis.
There’s a lot more to home affordability than the price a homebuyer agrees to pay the seller. To find the most affordable places to buy a home, SmartAsset took a holistic approach, ranking communities on an Affordability Index weighing closing costs, property taxes, homeowner’s insurance fees and mortgage payments relative to income.
Overall rankings are based on total housing costs over five years as a proportion of median household income. The most affordable cities and counties were those in which total housing costs on an average house accounted for the smallest proportion of the median income.
“In a place like Vine Grove, where the focus is families, affordability matters,” said Vine Grove mayor Blake Proffitt. “It’s rewarding to see this ranking because it indicates the value of city services, from public safety initiatives that affect insurance premiums to quality of life initiatives that attract new citizens to Vine Grove.”
Average closing costs, property taxes, homeowner’s insurance fees and mortgage payments in Vine Grove are all lower than state averages, while the city’s median household income is 30 percent higher than Kentucky’s.
