The Surprising Geography of College-Town Affordability in 2026
Students are increasingly choosing colleges based on cost of living, not just tuition. A new dataset tracks the towns where that decision pays off.
For most of the past two decades, college decisions in the United States have turned primarily on prestige, financial aid, and program fit. In 2026, a growing share of students and families are adding a fourth criterion: the cost of living in the surrounding town. The shift has been visible in admissions data since 2023, but a new dataset from the Brookings Institution provides the most detailed look yet at which college towns deliver good educational value at livable prices.
The Brookings analysis, released in February 2026, ranks 200 US college towns by a composite of median monthly rent, grocery costs, transit and car expenses, and entertainment prices, weighted to a typical student budget. The most affordable college towns of 2026 are not the obvious ones. Many sit in regions that students rule out before doing the math.
The New Affordable Map
The top five most affordable college towns in the Brookings analysis are State College, Pennsylvania; West Lafayette, Indiana; Lincoln, Nebraska; Manhattan, Kansas; and Ames, Iowa. All five host research universities of national reputation and offer student living costs at least 35 percent below the national college-town median. None of the five are in regions students typically associate with low cost of living, partly because the perception of the Midwest as “cheap” has eroded as housing costs have caught up in larger cities.
At the other end, the least affordable college towns include Berkeley, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Madison, Wisconsin. The first two are unsurprising. The latter two reflect a pattern that Brookings researchers say has gone underappreciated: traditionally affordable college towns near the upper Midwest have become significantly more expensive over the past five years as remote work redistributed populations.
Why This Matters More Than It Used To
Total cost of attendance figures published by universities have always understated true student spending. A 2024 study by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators found that real student living costs averaged 18 percent higher than published estimates, with the gap reaching 40 percent in expensive college towns. Students who choose colleges based on sticker price often discover the gap only after enrolling.
The affordability gap also affects who can attend which schools. A 2025 paper in the journal Economics of Education Review found that controlling for tuition and aid, lower-income students were 22 percent less likely to enroll at universities in expensive college towns than at otherwise comparable universities in affordable ones.
The Trade-Off With Job Markets
Cost of living rankings do not capture everything. Many affordable college towns are in regions with weaker local job markets, which can affect internship availability, part-time work options, and post-graduation employment. The Brookings dataset includes a secondary metric for “internship-adjusted” affordability that adjusts for distance to major metro job markets. On that measure, towns like Champaign-Urbana, Illinois and Columbia, Missouri rank higher because they are within easy commuting distance to Chicago and St. Louis respectively.
“Pure cost of living does not capture the full picture,” said Dr. Margarethe Larsson, an urban economist who co-authored the Brookings report. “Some affordable towns are isolated. Some are surprisingly well connected. Students need to look at both.”
What Universities Are Doing
Some universities in expensive college towns have begun investing in subsidized housing, but the pace has been slow relative to the cost increases. UC Berkeley’s most recent student housing project added 2,200 beds at below-market rates but came online seven years late and at three times the original budget. Other universities have partnered with neighboring towns to extend public transit, allowing students to live in lower-cost areas without losing easy access to campus.
The University of Michigan recently piloted an “affordable corridor” program that subsidizes the cost of housing in adjacent towns for students from lower-income backgrounds. Early enrollment data suggests the program has reduced the financial pressure students reported in mid-year surveys.
What Students and Families Can Do
For families currently making college decisions, the practical step is to add a cost-of-living analysis to the comparison spreadsheet. Most students and parents focus on tuition minus aid. The Brookings report and similar resources can extend the analysis to monthly costs that will accumulate over four years.
“A $5,000 per year difference in rent is $20,000 over four years,” said Dr. Larsson. “That is roughly the cost of a year of tuition at many public universities. It deserves more attention than it usually gets.”
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