To covet waterfront property is to be human. The crisp air, the sunbeams bouncing off the water, and the boat outings beckoning — what's not to love? With the pandemic forcing us to spend more time than ever before in our domiciles, it's no wonder this desire for lakeside living has spiked to even greater heights over the last few years. But with the worries of an upcoming recession mounting and inflation on the rise, the opportunity to snatch up a waterfront property may seem impossible.
Luckily, there are some attainable options in lake towns across the United States that are ripe for the picking, according to research from the real estate pros over at Realtor.com. After looking at over 11,000 towns with or on lakes and calculating affordability, Realtor.com has assembled a list of The 10 Most Affordable Lake Towns in America, 2022 Edition.
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Taking the number one spot on the list is Sulphur, Oklahoma, which has a median home listing price of $224,000. This is a town that's famous for its mineral springs and home to Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Oklahoma's oldest national park. (You can read more about the park's complex history here.)
Spirit Lake, Iowa is close behind — and has its own devastating history — coming up second on the list with a median home listing price of $301,000. It's situated in the Iowa Great Lakes region.
Rounding out the top three in Realtor.com's breakdown is Watertown, South Dakota. This appropriately named area has a $315,000 median home listing price, and allows for different activities depending on the season, such as boating in the summer and then snowmobiling and ice fishing in the winter.
Check out the full list of towns with their median home prices below.
1. Sulphur, OK: $224,000
2. Spirit Lake, IA: $301,000
3. Watertown, SD: $315,000
4. Winsted, CT: $260,000
5. Ketchikan, AK: $420,000
6. Lake Placid, NY: $279,000
7. Sandusky, OH: $158,000
8. Ashland, WI: $146,000
9. Cheboygan, MI: $248,000
10. Lake Ariel, PA: $307,000