Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.
I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.
And while every neighbhorhood in Tempe might be more expensive than living in rural Arizona, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.
What exactly are those Tempe neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?
Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Tempe are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.
What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Tempe for 2024? According to the most recent census data, East Rio looks to be the cheapest Tempe neighborhood to live in.
At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Tempe. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Tempe that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Tempe.
For more Arizona reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In Arizona
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Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table
The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Tempe For 2024
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Population: 229
Cost Of Living Index: 97 (11th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.7 (cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.011 (3rd cheapest)
More on East Rio: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 977
Cost Of Living Index: 95 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.1 (8th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (13th cheapest)
More on Kyrene-Superstition: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 348
Cost Of Living Index: 97 (11th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.5 (15th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (6th cheapest)
More on Cyprus Southwest: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 443
Cost Of Living Index: 100 (18th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.6 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (17th cheapest)
More on Superstition: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 1,508
Cost Of Living Index: 99 (14th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.3 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (12th cheapest)
More on Dava-Lakeshore: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 778
Cost Of Living Index: 100 (18th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.7 (20th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.012 (4th cheapest)
More on Mcclintock: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 2,884
Cost Of Living Index: 95 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.7 (19th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.018 (16th cheapest)
More on Ntna-College: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 1,031
Cost Of Living Index: 101 (22nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.7 (3rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.019 (18th cheapest)
More on Tempe Gardens: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 941
Cost Of Living Index: 93 (4th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.4 (13th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.022 (28th cheapest)
More on Baseline-Hardy: Data | Real Estate
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Population: 1,576
Cost Of Living Index: 106 (32nd cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.8 (4th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (9th cheapest)
More on Optimist Park Sw: Data | Real Estate
Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Tempe Hoods In 2024
To rank the cheapest places to live in Tempe, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.
Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:
- Overall Cost Of Living
- Rent To Income Ratio
- Median Home Value To Income Ratio
We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 49 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.
And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Tempe.” We’re lookin’ at you, East Rio.
We updated this article for 2024. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Tempe. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.
Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Tempe
If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Tempe where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.
The most affordable neighborhoods in Tempe are East Rio, Kyrene-Superstition, Cyprus Southwest, Superstition, Dava-Lakeshore, McClintock, Ntna-College, Tempe Gardens, Baseline-Hardy, and Optimist Park Sw.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Tempe aren’t all cheap. Riverside takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Tempe.
The most expensive neighborhoods in Tempe are Riverside, Shalimar, Alameda-Campus, Brentwood-Cavalier, and University Park.
We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.
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