Stop looking west.
If you want to stretch a dollar in 2026, you have to head south. Or maybe go mid-west. A new study by Seven Seas Worldwide just ranked every single state on how affordable it is to move there, and the map doesn’t lie. There is a hard line drawn across the country.
Every one of the top 10 cheapest places lives in the South or the Midwest. No exceptions.
Arkansas sat on the throne. With a score of 88.843, it beat the rest. The math is simple there. Rent was low at $1,098, home prices hovered around $255k, and even the cost to get your driver’s license didn’t bite. Mississippi came in second. It’s cheap. Real cheap. Car registration cost just over a dollar a month essentially, at $12.78 flat for the year.
Nebraska rounded out the podium. Then Iowa. Then Oklahoma.
The High Cost of Coasts
Now look at the bottom.
The expensive states are where you’d expect them. Coastal. Rainy. Expensive. Hawaii hit the wall, ranking last at 50th. The median home there? Almost a million bucks. $987,550.
Massachusetts, California, New York. They packed the bottom of the list like sardines in a can. New York rent alone eats you alive at nearly $2.8k a month. The gap is embarrassing almost. Arkansas home prices looked like pocket change next to Hawaii’s reality.
“More people are rethinking their location…”
That’s the takeaway from Wayne Mills at Seven Seas. Everyone is moving the goalposts because rent and utilities have gone up everywhere. Not just some places. Everywhere.
But it isn’t just the house.
It’s the fees. The license plates. The moving labor. Oklahoma has the lowest rent in the nation right now. $1,087 average. Iowa has the cheapest house at $230.6k.
The Devil is in the Fees
New Mexico kept electricity bills down, ranking second nationally. Kansas? Driver’s licenses cost four dollars. Four dollars.
Missouri was close behind.
Most people forget the small stuff until it hits the wallet. Registration fees, utility startups, hourly rates for movers who haul your boxes across state lines. It adds up fast.
The Full List
Here is who made it and who didn’t. No commentary, just the scores from Seven Seas:
- Arkansas (88.8)
- Mississippi (87.2)
- Nebraska (86.9)
- Iowa (86.1)
- Oklahoma (85.8)
- Louisiana (85.8)
- Missouri (85.4)
- Kansas (85.3)
- New Mexico (83.1)
- South Dakota (83.0)
…and all the way down to:
- Hawaii (22.3)
Four times the difference between first and last. That isn’t a gap. That’s a canyon.
You pick a side. Stay expensive or leave.
