This North Carolina City One of the Most Affordable Places to Live in 2024

Looking to relocate to another city this year? Well, it's best to make sure that the city that you choose is affordable. Trust me, I know. Life is expensive. You have to be sure to find the right places where your money can surely stretch. You want to find the one spot that has a low cost of living, a great job market and is overall budget-friendly. There is one North Carolina city that recently made this special list as one of the most affordable places to live in 2024.

Space Wise released its list of the most affordable places to live in 2024. The list consists of 15 affordable cities and one smaller North Carolina city made the cut. Hickory, North Carolina made the list for the top 15 most affordable places to live in 2024. So, what makes Hickory so affordable?

According to the report, Hickory has a population of about 41,000 people. Making the area not a large, bustling city but a nice quaint spot to live and grow. The area is northwest of Charlotte, closer to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The housing in Hickory is 19% lower than the national average. For those of us who have looked into the housing market in our own area, then we know how beneficial that can be. Saving money when it comes to your home can certainly be one of the best things in the world.

If you are looking to relocate, then you might want to look into the Hickory area. There are tons of things that you can do and historic spots with rich history. You also have the chance to be pretty close to the mountains if you are a fan of that vibe as well. Check out the full list here to see what other cities made the list of the most affordable spots.

Like it or not the leadership of any geographic area (municipalities, states, countries, etc.) can have a large impact on citizen's lives. So if you are choosing to call an area home, ideally you'd like for it to be well run. In a recent study conducted by WalletHub, they determined the most well run cities in the Country. This included the answer to the question of the most well run North Carolina cities.

WalletHub released its report on 2024’s Best- & Worst-Run Cities in America, ahead of the quickly approaching 2024 election. It hopes that residents will use the data to evaluate the effectiveness of their local leadership.

And running a city is no easy feat. Heck I'm not saying I could do it. Nor would I want to! But those that choose to pursue such a position, should be held to a high standard. They have in many cases millions of people who depend on them.

The method chosen by WalletHub to examine the effectiveness of local leadership in this case was " determining a city’s operating efficiency".Looking at how city officials manage and spend public funds. And from there compare the quality of the services provided to residents against the city’s total budget.

In order to create this list of the most well run cities "WalletHub compared 148 of the largest U.S. cities based on their operating efficiency." Each city was assigned a “Quality of City Services” score.

So just what are the most well run North Carolina cities and the worst? The good news is that of the 4 North Carolina cities featured in this study, two ranked fantastic, one certainly above average, but one major city? It was near the bottom of the rankings.

View the full WalletHub study here or keep reading to see where the North Carolina cities ranked.

Quality of City Services Rank: 26 Total Budget per Capita Rank: 135 Charlotte did not fare well in this study at all. Somehow as someone currently living in Charlotte, this doesn't come as much of a shock.

Quality of City Services Rank: 70 Total Budget per Capita Rank: 23 Congratulations to Greensboro, this is a very well respectable rank for a city often undervalued in a lot of these sort of lists.

Quality of City Services Rank: 12

Total Budget per Capita Rank: 33

Our state's capital city ranked 11th just narrowly missing the top 10. Glad the center of our state government is well run on the city level as well!

Quality of City Services Rank: 16

Total Budget per Capita Rank: 20

And the most well run city? It's Durham. Not only taking the crown for North Carolina but ranking 6th nationally. You go Durham!