Volusia-Flagler makes list for 'least expensive' place for families to live. A look.
DAYTONA BEACH ― A new national report has ranked the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach area as the country's 10th least expensive place to raise a family.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that no housing market in the country is considered affordable for median-income households, not even those on the "10 Least Expensive Metro Areas for Families" list, according to the company that produced the ranking: New York-based Creditnews Research.
"Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach," which consists of all of Volusia and Flagler counties, was one of only two metro areas in Florida to make the 2024 "10 Least Expensive" list by Creditnews. Lakeland-Winter Haven was ranked the nation's fifth cheapest place to raise a family.
"The least expensive metros require families to earn between $87,000 and $97,000 annually," the report stated.
That's in contrast to Creditnews' "10 Most Expensive Metro Areas for Families" ranking where households need to earn $140,000 or more just to cover basic living expenses. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California was the nation's most expensive place with a family of four needing to earn at least $167,271 a year to make ends meet.
How much do families need to earn to cover basics in Volusia-Flagler?
According to the Creditnews report, households in the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach metro area need to earn at least $97,025 to cover basic living expenses. That works out to an average annual hourly wage of $23.32 per parent.
Single adults in Volusia-Flagler need to earn at least $40,929 per year. The family income threshold is about 2.37 times that of a single adult, according to the report.
The data used to compile the ranking came from the Living Wage Institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Department of Labor Statistics Women's Bureau.
What's the actual annual household income here?
The U.S. Census Bureau's most recent annual "American Community Survey" report found that the median household income in Flagler County, as of 2022, was $71,211. In Volusia County, it was $64,857.
The median means half of the households had annual incomes higher and half lower than that amount.
Among individual cities, Ponce Inlet had the combined Volusia-Flagler area's highest median annual household income in 2022: $98,125. Holly Hill had the the two-county area's lowest median annual household income: $40,908.
Unemployment remains low in both counties
According to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the unemployment rate as of April was 3.2% in Flagler County while in Volusia County it stood at 3.5%.
What is the median cost to buy a home locally?
The median sale price for single-family homes sold by Realtors in Volusia County in May was $350,000, up 4.5% from a year ago, according to county-wide data compiled by the Florida Realtors association. The Daytona Beach News-Journal obtains the county-wide numbers from the West Volusia Association of Realtors.
The median sale price for homes actually sold in Flagler County in May was $379,000, up from $365,450 the same month last year, according to Multiple Listing Service data provided by Toby Tobin, a Realtor with Grand Living Commercial Realty in Palm Coast. Tobin writes a blog on the Flagler County real estate market called GoToby.com.
Realtor associations only track sales by its members which can include homes they in other counties.
Who else made the top 10 least expensive list?
Here is Creditnews Research's ranking of the nation's 10 least expensive places to live for families, along with the minimum annual household income needed to scrape by:
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas ($87,133).
El Paso, Texas ($90,239).
3. Jackson, Mississippi ($93,124).
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, Arkansas ($93,683).
Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida ($94,024).
Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia/South Carolina ($95,441).
Wichita, Kansas ($96,025).
New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana ($96,519).
Knoxville, Tennessee ($96,954).
Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach ($97,025).
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Deltona-Daytona-Ormond makes list for 'least expensive' for families
