10 Cheapest Cities in the Country

You'll also find the 21st-best prices on miscellaneous items (8.6% better than average), as well as good deals on utilities (7.3% below average), transportation (6.7% less than average) and health care (6% better than average).

If you want to move to McAllen, Realtor.com has some 560 homes listed for sale there, from a $28,700 two-bedroom house to a $1.8 million Spanish/Mediterranean-style estate.

No. 2 cheapest city: Memphis, Tenn.
Cost of living index: 83.7

Tennessee's largest city offers below-average costs on all six categories that the Council for Community and Economic Research measures.

Utilities cost just 81.3% of national average, while miscellaneous goods are 10.2% below average, transportation 9.1% less than average, groceries 6.9% cheaper than average and health care discounted by 3.6%.

But it's in real estate where the Bluff City really shines.

Housing in the 663,000-population locale costs 31.3% below national average -- tying Winston-Salem, N.C., as the nation's fourth-cheapest market.

There are some 4,400 Memphis properties listed for sale on Realtor.com. Prices range from $2,000 for a three-bedroom home (yes, you read that right) to $4.6 million for a 102-year-old urban estate.

No. 1 cheapest city: Harlingen, Texas
Cost of living index: 82.8

This city in southern Texas just 10 miles from the U.S.-Mexican border is America's cheapskate mecca, with a cost of living 17.2% below national average.

A city of some 65,000 people, Harlingen takes top honors mostly by virtue of having the nation's lowest cost -- 79.5% of U.S. average -- for miscellaneous goods.

Located about 130 miles south of Corpus Christi and 30 miles west of the Gulf of Mexico, Harlingen also enjoys the fourth-cheapest transportation cost (83.8% of average) and places fifth for grocery costs (16.6% below average).

That more than offsets the city's relatively high utility costs, which clock in at 102.1% of national average.