This Is The Cheapest Town In PA To Buy A House, Study Says

GIRARDVILLE, PA — Could you live in Girardville, Pennsylvania if it meant saving tens of thousands of dollars off the price of a home?

The tiny community, boasting a population of just 1,094, has the cheapest average single-family home in the state, according to a new study from Go Banking Rates.

The Schuylkill County borough, some 58 miles northwest of Reading and 20 miles south of Bloomsburg, has a home price of just $41,732.

The personal finance website used data from the Zillow Home Value Index and U.S. Census Bureau population data to find the places in all 50 states where houses are a steal. The Girardville market has homes for exponentially lower prices than the average single family home in the country, which is valued at about $367,711 and economically impractical for the majority of Americans.

Girardville boomed in wake of the industrial revolution and the growth of anthracite coal mining in the region. It was home to nearly 4,500 residents in the early 20th century, enough that a Main Street developed to serve the residents of a growing town. Historical record shows that it was named for Stephen Girard, the banker and philanthropist for whom Philadelphia's famous Girard Avenue is also named.

The tiny community could have connections to the global community of folk music, too. Legendary 19th and early 20th century explorer and poet "Captain" Jack Crawford lived in the town for years, where he was a soldier for the Union in the Civil War and eventually postmaster of Girardville, according to his online biography.

As a frontier scout in the west he later became a figure with near legendary status, but one of his most famous works, "Only a Miner Killed," is set in Girardville. The words echoed through history and some Bob Dylan scholars and analysts believe it heavily influenced his 1963 hit "Only A Hobo."

As coal mining dwindled, so too did Girardville, and along with it, the property values. Today, a three bedroom townhouse like this one, right on Main Street, is up for sale for $49,900. The home comes with a backyard and a 1,742 square feet lot, and a fair amount of history: it was originally built in 1857.

While somewhat remote from larger communities, the town sits immediately on Mahanoy Creek, home to good bass, catfish, and trout fishing, and not far from various trailhead entry points onto the Appalachian Trail.

The rest of the list

The smallest place on the list is Brian Head, Utah. Originally known as Monument Peak, a town of 49 with a history rooted in exploration and logging.

Also with populations under 100 are a pair of former mining towns often described as “living ghost towns”: Austin, Nevada, with a population of 47, and Johannesburg, California, with a population of 77.

Other specks on the map with populations under 500 include Bly, Oregon (population 123); Davidson, Oklahoma (159); Medicine Lake, Montana (190); Kitzmiller, Maryland (192); Lyon Mountain, New York (240); Drake North Dakota (245); Mystic, Iowa (257); Roxobel, North Carolina (347); Whiteface, Texas (390); Bowie, Arizona (399); Elmore, Minnesota (442); Pierce, Idaho (465); and Lind, Washington (491).