While waterfront properties are typically found in luxury housing markets, recent data show there are still affordable lakeside communities in the U.S. According to housing market platform Realtor.com, homes near lakes in the U.S. typically cost 20% to 30% more, but relatively inexpensive properties can still be found in many parts of the Upper Midwest and the South. The top housing market with affordable lake homes is Rogers City, Mich., with a median list price of just $142,500. This is followed by Lockport, La., which has a median list price of $145,500.
The towns included in the analysis had an average home price of less than $450,000. (The median home list price is now about $442,000.) We included cities with at least 50 listings over the past year, but no more than 10,000 (to exclude especially large cities), and we made sure there were at least 30 listings within the half-mile range. Finally, we ranked the towns by their median list price and did some sleuthing to make sure they felt like true “lake towns.”