Most affordable towns in North Dakota, 2026
Wahpeton is the most affordable ranked town in North Dakota. Rent, the regional price level, taxes, and electricity are 22.5% each. Gasoline is 10%. A lower score is more affordable.
Summary
- 13
- Towns ranked in North Dakota.
- Wahpeton
- Number 1 in North Dakota. Rent is 14.4% of income. National rank 7.
- 15.9%
- Median rent share among ranked towns in North Dakota.
- 9
- Ranked North Dakota towns in the national top 100.
- Devils Lake
- Least affordable ranked town in North Dakota. Rent is 19.7% of income. National rank 289.
Gasoline
$4.237
per gallon. EIA does not publish a North Dakota price. This is the Midwest (PADD 2) price for the week of October 12, 2026. At 12,000 miles a year and 25 mpg, that is $2,033.76 a year for every ranked town in North Dakota.
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Cost & Benefits. "2026 Most Affordable Towns Index: North Dakota." October 16, 2026. https://costandbenefits.com/reports/most-affordable-towns-2026/north-dakota
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National index · Press · How we count
Benefits and taxes in North Dakota
Top 25
North Dakota has 13 ranked towns, so this is the full list.
#1 in North Dakota · National #7
Wahpeton
Rent share 14.4% · Price level 89.0 · Score 0.128
Median rent is $751 a month and median income is $62,750, so rent is 14.4% of income, under the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The North Dakota state price level is 89.0 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is electricity price and its heaviest mark is gasoline price.
#2 in North Dakota · National #11
Dickinson
Rent share 13.9% · Price level 89.0 · Score 0.133
Median rent is $957 a month and median income is $82,696, so rent is 13.9% of income, under the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The North Dakota state price level is 89.0 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is electricity price and its heaviest mark is gasoline price.
#3 in North Dakota · National #13
Valley City
Rent share 15.5% · Price level 89.0 · Score 0.139
Median rent is $780 a month and median income is $60,339, so rent is 15.5% of income, under the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The North Dakota state price level is 89.0 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is electricity price and its heaviest mark is gasoline price.
#4 in North Dakota · National #17
Minot
Rent share 15.9% · Price level 87.0 · Score 0.149
Median rent is $973 a month and median income is $73,219, so rent is 15.9% of income, even with the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The Minot, ND metro price level is 87.0 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is regional price level and its heaviest mark is gasoline price.
#5 in North Dakota · National #26
West Fargo
Rent share 14.7% · Price level 90.9 · Score 0.158
Median rent is $1,111 a month and median income is $90,665, so rent is 14.7% of income, under the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The Fargo, ND-MN metro price level is 90.9 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is electricity price and its heaviest mark is gasoline price.
#6 in North Dakota · National #38
Watford City
Rent share 15.7% · Price level 89.0 · Score 0.165
Median rent is $1,336 a month and median income is $102,260, so rent is 15.7% of income, under the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The North Dakota state price level is 89.0 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is electricity price and its heaviest mark is gasoline price.
#7 in North Dakota · National #42
Jamestown
Rent share 16.4% · Price level 89.0 · Score 0.166
Median rent is $773 a month and median income is $56,554, so rent is 16.4% of income, over the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The North Dakota state price level is 89.0 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is electricity price and its heaviest mark is gasoline price.
#8 in North Dakota · National #51
Bismarck
Rent share 15.3% · Price level 91.0 · Score 0.170
Median rent is $999 a month and median income is $78,387, so rent is 15.3% of income, under the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The Bismarck, ND metro price level is 91.0 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is electricity price and its heaviest mark is gasoline price.
#9 in North Dakota · National #70
Williston
Rent share 17.0% · Price level 89.0 · Score 0.177
Median rent is $1,122 a month and median income is $79,381, so rent is 17.0% of income, over the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The North Dakota state price level is 89.0 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is electricity price and its heaviest mark is gasoline price.
#10 in North Dakota · National #136
Grand Forks
Rent share 18.5% · Price level 86.7 · Score 0.198
Median rent is $980 a month and median income is $63,627, so rent is 18.5% of income, over the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The Grand Forks, ND-MN metro price level is 86.7 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is regional price level and its heaviest mark is rent share.
#11 in North Dakota · National #144
Fargo
Rent share 16.9% · Price level 90.9 · Score 0.199
Median rent is $946 a month and median income is $66,998, so rent is 16.9% of income, over the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The Fargo, ND-MN metro price level is 90.9 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is electricity price and its heaviest mark is tax burden.
#12 in North Dakota · National #188
Mandan
Rent share 18.1% · Price level 91.0 · Score 0.210
Median rent is $1,083 a month and median income is $71,780, so rent is 18.1% of income, over the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The Bismarck, ND metro price level is 91.0 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is electricity price and its heaviest mark is gasoline price.
#13 in North Dakota · National #289
Devils Lake
Rent share 19.7% · Price level 89.0 · Score 0.231
Median rent is $711 a month and median income is $43,220, so rent is 19.7% of income, over the 15.9% median for ranked towns in North Dakota. The North Dakota state price level is 89.0 (U.S. = 100). Residential electricity is 13.41 cents per kWh. Gasoline is $4.237 a gallon (Midwest (PADD 2)). Among ranked U.S. towns, its lightest mark is electricity price and its heaviest mark is rent share.
Least affordable 10
Every ranked town in North Dakota is already in the list above.
The formula
A lower score is more affordable. Rent share, the regional price level, taxes, and electricity each count 22.5%. Gasoline counts 10%. Those weights are our choice. Gasoline stays at 10% because the miles figure is one national standard, not a measured town commute. This is not a government standard.
A percentile is the share of ranked towns with a strictly lower number, divided by the number of ranked towns minus one. The lowest number scores 0. Tied numbers share a percentile.
- Rent share = (median monthly rent × 12) / median household income. Both figures are the Census 2020–2024 medians for that place.
- RPP-adjusted cost is the BEA 2024 all-items regional price parity. A basket priced at 100 for the U.S. average costs this many dollars in the town's area. We use the metro index when the county is in a metro BEA publishes. Otherwise we use the state index and say so. This index includes housing, so housing also shows up in the rent share.
- Tax burden is the average of three percentiles. Income-tax share is state income tax plus the stored 2023 local AGI add-on, divided by the town's median household income, on a joint return. Property share is the state's median effective property-tax rate times the town's median home value, divided by income. Sales rate is the combined state and average local sales-tax rate. We do not turn the sales rate into dollars, because that would require a shopping basket we do not have.
- Electricity is the state residential price in cents per kilowatt-hour. Every town in a state shares it. We do not guess how many kilowatt-hours a home uses.
- Gasoline is the EIA retail price for all grades and all formulations, in dollars per gallon. Where EIA publishes a state series, we use that state. Every other state uses the PADD region EIA assigns to it. Census does not publish commuting miles for these towns, so annual gas spend is 12,000 miles a year divided by 25 miles per gallon, times the price. That is 480 gallons, the same for every town. Those miles are our standard, not an ACS figure and not a government mileage rule. Because the gallons do not change, the gas percentile is the percentile of the price.
Weekly prices are for the week of October 12, 2026, from the EIA workbook released October 14, 2026. File: https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/xls/pswrgvwall.xls. Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, and Oregon use West Coast (PADD 5) Except California. That series is not in the weekly workbook, so those five use the monthly price dated September 15, 2026. File: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_gnd_a_epm0_pte_dpgal_m.htm.
- State series, week of October 12, 2026: California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Texas, Washington.
- Central Atlantic (PADD 1B), week of October 12, 2026: Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.
- Gulf Coast (PADD 3), week of October 12, 2026: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico.
- Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C), week of October 12, 2026: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia.
- Midwest (PADD 2), week of October 12, 2026: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin.
- New England (PADD 1A), week of October 12, 2026: Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont.
- Rocky Mountain (PADD 4), week of October 12, 2026: Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming.
- West Coast (PADD 5) Except California, September 15, 2026: Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon.
Score = 0.225 × rent percentile + 0.225 × price-level percentile + 0.225 × tax score + 0.225 × electricity percentile + 0.10 × gasoline percentile. Rank 1 is the lowest score. If scores tie, the lower rent share wins, then the lower price level, then the place slug in A-to-Z order.
Questions
What is the most affordable town in North Dakota in this index?
Wahpeton is number 1 of 13 ranked towns in North Dakota. Median rent is 14.4% of median income. Its national rank is 7.
How many towns in North Dakota were ranked?
13 towns in North Dakota have at least 5,000 people and published Census rent, income, and home value. Places missing one of those figures are left out.
Does this ranking approve benefits in North Dakota?
No. Cost & Benefits does not approve or deny benefits. The score is a cost comparison only.