Where can you get a home for $150K?

There are 125 metro areas where starter homes cost $150,000 or less – sometimes far less. Learn where the homes are, and how you can buy one.

Believe it or not, you can get into a $150,000 starter home with less than $2,500 in savings. You'll need to leverage the new $8,000 federal tax incentive and have at least average credit, but your monthly payment would work out to about $1,000 a month including taxes and insurance.

According to National Association of Realtors economist Lawrence Yun, starter homes are usually priced about 30% below a local market's median. (The "median" is where half the homes cost more and half cost less.) So the most promising cities for families to buy a first home would have median prices of $215,000 or below (as a $150,000 home is about 30% less than the $215,000 median).

According to the NAR, 125 metro areas had a median price of less than $215,000 at the end of the first quarter; you'll find the list below, plus links to find homes priced 30% below each market's median. In some of these markets, that starter home will cost far less than $150,000.

By Marilyn Lewis of MSN Real Estate