America's 15 Best Bargain Cities

Looking to save cash? Try these places to get the most for your money.

ByABC News
October 24, 2008, 3:33 PM

May 23, 2009— -- Nearly a decade ago, after making a donation to a volunteer-run radio station in Austin, Texas, local librarian Red Wassenich was asked why he chose to support a broadcaster with a penchant for playing strange crooner music. "Because it keeps Austin weird," he said.

Since then, the phrase "Keep Austin Weird" has become the city's official rallying cry against the establishment of large chain stores near mom-and-pop shops--and, more generally, for maintaining the city's eccentric feel. The city may be weird, but perhaps more redeeming is that it's also a bargain to live there: Austin is the place where people pay the least to get the most.

Click here to learn more about America's best bargain cities at our partner site, Forbes.com.

"Austin has always been really different from the rest of Texas," says Wassenich, 59.

He's talking about the city's weirdness, but he might as well be talking about its affordability and profusion of job opportunities. Four other Texas cities make the list of America's Best Bargain Cities, but none come close to Austin, whose 5.5 percent unemployment is the best in the country and about half the national average.

To determine which U.S. cities are the best bargains, Forbes looked at the country's 50 largest U.S. metropolitan statistical areas and metropolitan divisions -- geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget used by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics.