Could Detroit be the Cheapest Place to Live?

In a recent Money Magazine article  a Detroit home with "surprisingly little work needed' sold for just $6,900! All the new owner, a guy from Chicago, needed to do was put in a little paint, replace some old, dirty carpets, and install a new water heater.

Detroit is full of great real estate deals like this one with foreclosed homes in relatively good condition selling within hours of hitting the market.


Could Detroit's loss become the real estate investors dream or is it simply destined to beocme one of the cheapest places to live in America?

Rankings come Second Place to 'Familiarity' for Ex-Pats

Yes, Norway and Australia and even Iceland have been ranked as the best places to live in the world but that doesn't mean Americans are going to make a rush to move there.

When it comes to retirement and second homes they tend to look to more familiar locations.

The United Nations' human development index came out earlier this week and ranked those as the hot spots. It also gave a thumbs up to Canada and Ireland by placing them among the top five places to live in the world.

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Cheapest Places to Live for Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams maybe a well known and successful singer now but when she was working on her craft she traveled extensively living "like a musical vagabond'.

She traveled anywhere and everywhere that had the cheapest places to live and places where songwriters and performers were welcomed.

Williams just recently married her long time fiance and manager, Tom Overby at the end of one of her concerts.

Best and Worst Places to Live

The Mail & Guardian online recently posted an article naming Norway as the best place to live or in their words, 'the most desirable country". Now Norway certainly isn't one of the cheapest places to live but it brings home he reality of 'cheap' not necessarily be 'good' or even 'desirable' for that matter.

The ranking was actually based on UN data which just got released last Monday. The UN report went on to label 'sub-saharan African states' as the worst places to live due to war and HIV/aids.

Notes of interest -

• Life expectancy in Norway is 8o years vs 50 for Niger.
• The ratio of $ per person earned in Norway vs Niger was 85 to 1.
• Japan boasts the longest life span at 82.7 years compared to just 43.6 years in Afganistan.
• Liechtenstein has a GDP of more than $85,000 per capita even though it only has a populaiton of 35,000.
• Norway, Australia and Iceland have the best standard of living in the world.
• Niger, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone have the worst. 

It doesn't talk specifically about the Cheapest Places to Live but I image some of those poor countries would be pretty low.