The key might be "twenty-something." Just guessing but I live in L.A. and I'm in my 30s and we just bought a small house with room for a nice vegetable garden (and chickens except my dogs would eat them) but that would definitely not have been financially possible in my 20s. (I'm married and we make more than 50k a year together, but again - that was NOT true in my twenties.) Maybe these are just older farmers? :)

We started in Savannah, GA making minimum wage and living in a questionable corner of the historic district. No bees, chickens, or other livestock allowed, but several houses on our block were growing a good portion of their own produce. Job prospects became a bit more bleak in the off months for tourism there though, and we wanted to be in a different environment after having kids, so we have since moved to Atlanta and live a few minutes outside the perimeter where very cheap large lot foreclosures were plentiful. We now have a large market garden, goats, chickens, and guest bees (hosting someone else's hives for a share of the final product). Living on more than minimum wage now, but not by much, and certainly not over $50k a year. With a sustainable homestead though, keep in mind that your expenses are less than a normal household. Much easier to stretch a budget when needs are already met or mostly met.

Indianapolis is VERY affordable for young, cool, poor people. Rent for entire houses (which usually include all the bygone charm, sometimes which you have to find for yourself with a little free time and elbow grease) in decent areas is around 700 bucks. There is a lot of re-habbing of neighborhoods that were previously left to crumble- a lot of neighborhood associations and pride in history. Public transportation sucks- you need a car here. Also, depending on your "scene," there isn't much of one, but there are a lot of friendly DIY types. We have roller derby, burlesque, breweries and wineries popping up every other month, jazz bars, MCM architecture out the wazoo, design boutiques... you just have to be willing to drive to get to them because they're not all in one neighborhood the way they are in bigger cities. Job-wise, almost everyone I know has an anonymous day-job in a cubicle. The key here is doing a lot of research about an area before you move to it and to not be afraid to get your hands dirty to make a really terrific, but neglected, house a "home." ALSO- you are a three hour drive to Chicago, a two hour drive to Louisville, and you are never more than an hour from a lake during the summer. Your weekend getaways are -made- from this location.

We don't make that much, but we bought in a poorer section of town where prices are much lower. My boyfriend is a carpenter and with the money from the sale of his house after a divorce, built it himself. We have about 1/5 of an acre and the house isn't very big. Also, no one around here cares what we do in our yard as long as it isn't dangerous. We know some people doing community gardens and when they've dug up plots, this being Tennessee, there is a lot of stone that they had no use for so we got it for free. I've been using this to make attractive raised beds and edging. I'm growing veggies in the front yard as that's the only spot that gets enough sun. I don't do lawns so the landscaping will be part ornamental and part edible. I have enough room to start from seed, which saves a lot of money, and so far have about 400 peat pots. We'll be growing beans along the chain link fence. Nashville just legalized chickens within city limits, which I would love to have, except our dog would terrorize them. A family down the street does have chickens so we buy from them.

Oh, that's easy. Detroit is the place for urban farming.
http://blog.makezine.com/2011/09/09/farming-detroit/
http://michiganmoviemagazine.biz/component/content/article/243.html
http://www.grownindetroitmovie.com/
http://www.repastspresentandfuture.org/site/farmer-fund/
Acres and acres of cheap (almost free) land, a rich agricultural history, a good growing climate, Eastern Market, rich soil, a highly energized local foods movement, and Michigan is second only to California in variety of crops grown state-wide. Farming is HUGE in the D.

I love in Bend, OR. My neighbor asked her landlord if she could use the neglected back area of the four-plex for a garden. I watched pink-mohawked dart-throwing Becky replace junk and garbage with 3 4 ft x 12 ft beds with irrigation, a large tractor tire for squash and a compost bin by bartering the eggs she had from her four chickens in her 8 x8 ft yard. It took her most of the season but she managed to hobble together all of this with egg-bartered goods, regularly visiting the local Habitat ReStore and another junk store in town. She spent maybe $150 on new things-everything else was built with her relationships. She made an ugly area gorgeous in our little corner. She probably increased the value of the rentals with her green thumb. Thumbs up to Becky!

You've clearly never been to the South! Come on down!

I live in Columbus w/ my wife in a smallish cape cod on a 50x130 lot. We fall into the $50k+ category. This will be our third year for keeping bees in our back yard. A good portion of it is also dedicated to our garden which we'll be expanding this year. Hopefully be putting some gardening space in the front as well.

We have some neighbors who keep chickens and like us also give up a large amount of their property for growing food.

I think the key is using your space for something other than an empty lawn.

DETROIT! I second everything that WYYFE already mentioned.

Plus, my fiance and I are in our mid 20's and were able to purchase our home. It's a 2 story pre-war brick home in a historic neighborhood and it's only costing us about 5 years rent! We paid $30k for a move-in ready house filled with tons of original features - hardwood floors, built-ins, etc. plus it was already upgraded to centrai heat and a/c. Can you really beat that? And it's on a double lot so we have plenty of room for a vegetable garden, too.

There's so much vacant land that is begging for people with the ideas and the motivation to do something with. The only downside to buying acres of property in Detroit is the property taxes. However, there are neighborhoods with huge tax breaks. Example: We will pay 40% less for 15 years because it's a historic neighborhood.

PS- in the interest of relevancy (which I ditzed thru in my first post) - I should mention that with big, cheap houses come big ol' backyards, many of them already fenced in. I know a couple people downtown who keep chickens, but they built relationships with their neighbors before starting up because each street is a unique case.

I lived on a serious budget in a rent controlled apartment in NYC on the Upper West Side and we joined a Community Garden a few blocks away from us (we actually never gardened there as we ended up having to move out of the city that year). We also had some lettuce, radishes, and turnips growing in window boxes (we weren't allowed, but who was going to see us -- we were up high). And we belonged to a CSA and would occasionally spend our vacations there and farm for a week. There was also a community flower garden near us in Riverside Park.

We (my fiance and I) are in our 20's and make in the 50k+ range. We live in the SF Bay Area - not in San Francisco, but on the peninsula. We rent a 650 sq ft house with a small yard (big enough for a chicken coop and a couple smallish raised beds, but not very much else) for around $1100/mo, which is definitely a steal compared to other local places (as far as we can tell).

We've been keeping chickens for more than 6 months (we moved here in late 2010), and it's lovely, but we're really fortunate to have an inexpensive and lovely place to live that has a yard. Our next door neighbors (their roof touches ours, so technically we live in a duplex) have a separate back yard that is nothing but asphalt (and they have young children). We love where we live, and feel incredibly fortunate, but I don't know that we make a useful data point for you; I think we're outliers in being able to have a situation like this and still work in SF.

Hey Maria - you should look into Austin, TX. A very cool and very affordable town. Also there is a strong local food movement here and you'll be surrounded by people who like to grown food, plants and flowers at home. You can find an apartment with a garden in front or you can afford to rent a house here and have a full yard. People grow lots of vegetables and you see a lot of gourmet recipes from home-grown gardens at local farmer's markets.

My husband convinced me to move to St. Louis 2 years ago from Chicago and I couldn't be happier with the decision. In St. Louis we make about the same amount of money (both under $40k), but the cost of living is much lower. We spent about $130k for a 2 bedroom house with a nice-sized yard in a safe, walking-friendly neighborhood. We do both own a car, but we have friends who have 1-car households. Sometimes I miss the excitement of Chicago, but St. Louis has theatre, music, bars, art, and all the other stuff you would want in a city. The job market here isn't as bad as some other places, and there seem to be a lot of opportunities for people in the nonprofit sector, which is what we both work in.

Milwaukee, WI. Here in the city limits you can have up to four hens (no roosters), beehives, and there is major support for gardening either at home or on city land. The urban ecology center holds seminars on how to raise chickens and keep bees. We are home to Sweetwater Organics and Growing Power, as well as dozen of other organizations all devoted to sustainable city living. There are tons of craftsmen style homes on the market for cheap here right now too. Farm fresh produce and eggs are delivered throughout the summer to those whom participate in community shared agriculture and there are farmers markets in every district! Not to mention the festivals!

I just checked average income for my zip code, 3 minutes drive to San Francisco, and it's 78K. A lower 48K will qualify you for the average house for probably the next three years though it means property taxes of about 9-12K a year which are a hefty add-on. On my city lot in my microclimate, not so close to the ocean that it's foggy much, I can grow my food 11 months of the year (freeze, heavy rain, extreme heat account for the lost time but most years I'm growing 12 months of the year). I grow all my own lemons, oranges, limes, citron, pears, plums, apples, alpine strawberries and some but not all of the overbearing strawberries I need; I grow 75% of the total veggies consumed, 20% of the spices, 100% of the herbs; there's even still room to plant or put more into rotation; I use biodynamic gardening techniques so the soil is amazingly healthy which means very healthy plants/trees and a higher density planting without any pests or plant diseases. One neighbor has chickens for fresh eggs, another grows corn and grapes and berries, yet another grows primarily nightshade veggies, we trade and whatever's leftover we give to a local food bank and to single parents in our neighborhood who help out with harvest and/or tree trimming (it's nice to see their children becoming young gardeners and beginning gardens in their yards too). The chicken grower is considering adding two beehives to his garden although, being prone to anaphylaxis from bee sting, I'm not terribly excited about that addition but really haven't the ability to yay/nay the project. In San Francisco you can actually get honey, like in New York, from specific neighborhoods and honey in my area will include pollen from the wildflowers in a nearby state park. There are active rooftop, balcony, community gardens, farms and farmer's markets all over the Bay Area. It can be considered expensive to live here, but virtually all the costs related to weather are a non-issue (extra heating/cooling, wear and tear on your cars), so it generally evens out fairly well. Gas is, of course, taxed much higher here than in other states (except Hawaii) but the job market is _usually_ fairly strong and in general except for this last hiccup California's been the last into recession and one of the first to emerge. I see an uptick in hiring now and most reasonable estimates are that hiring will increase by 250K in 2012/early 2013 but I'm ignoring those who predict 500K hiring. I've lived half a dozen other places in the States and abroad but what brings me back here is the quality of living which includes the weather, proximity to everything I want to do (kayak, sail, hike, snow ski, hang glide, arts, culture, food), and the ability to grow my own food easily.

One of the key homesteaders in the area, Novella Carpenter, writes a blog that may interest you:

http://ghosttownfarm.wordpress.com/

Plus an community organization teaches classes that include some on urban gardening and homesteading:

http://18reasons.org/

And I recently learned rooftop gardening techniques from a local hotel, the San Francisco Fairmont, and am considering converting my flat garage roof to more gardening space.

Hope that helps.

I second Brooklynindiana's enthusiastic endorsement of Indianapolis! I couldn't say it better myself.

I'm a 20 something in Austin with 4 chickens, 2 dogs and one fantastic backyard stocked with multiple veggie gardens. I work for a non profit and my husband is a teacher, so we are by no means rolling in dough. Fortunately Austin is a fantastic place for young people with big plans and a small budget. Our blog has more on the subject. Http://thedoodlehouse.com

I left San Francisco in 2006, in large part because I was sick of the fact that, for me, the cost of surviving negated any hope of actually living. After some bumbling around, I ended up Everett, WA. My current income hovers around the 50k mark, income-wise, and with that am able to afford a more-than-ample house (2400sf, old - 1905 - but in great shape) with enough dirt around it to garden.

Because I haven't been here long enough to have a mature kitchen garden, and because I do still like having flowers and lawn, I also rent a pea patch plot locally for $15/season. I am 5-10 minutes from co-op farms that allow rentals of entire acres for absurdly cheap, should I ever want to make serious dents in the whole growing-my-meals concept.

Chickens are on the soon list - attractive, serivcable coops aren't cheap - but the city allows 5 per lot, and there's some really serious chicken folk around these parts who are excellent resources. Not 100% sure about beehives in my city, but I know other people in the area who keep bees, so it's probably do-able. CSAs and organic meat co-ops are readily available, and public transit all over the region, Seattle included, is accessible.

As long as you don't mind the entire word coming to a halt when it snows, it's a great place to live.

Vallejo, CA is affordable to buy (especially right now), and only about an hour's commute from San Francisco, the rest of the Bay Area, Sacramento, and the Napa Valley. But we only have like four police officers and areas with a lot of crime. I was fortunate enough to find a small home in a nice, quiet, safe neighborhood for only $136k.

Oklahoma City is inexpensive and a pleasant place to live - I considered purchasing a home there.

Minneapolis and St. Paul! Arts and culture reminiscent of much larger cities, cost of living in line with mid-size American cities, and lots of protected urban nature. There's a strong urban homesteading movement. If you're willing to endure long, cold winters (while being introduced to zillions of winter sports you've never even heard of), it's a great place to live.

Haven't seen 20-something in a couple of decades, but I am practicing urban farming on much, much less than $50K in Louisville, KY. I have 5 hens & a 10x10 garden in the backyard of my 1950's ranch. Buy a small house in need of some repairs for less than $100,000 within the city limits, in a walkable neighborhood with restaurants, bars, coffee shops, galleries, neighborhood bookstores. Check out the Clifton and Germantown neighborhoods. Big sustainability movement here. Worth looking into!

My husband and I are in our late 20s and live in St. Louis. Our small but comfy apartment across from gorgeous Forest Park is a very cheap $700. St. Louis was also just named as one of the top 8 cities for tech jobs. I'm a software engineer and can attest that demand is huge.

Relatively quiet compared to somewhere like Chicago, but so affordable and lots of great little communities here. You can get gorgeous old bungalows here for just over $100,000.

I am a 20-something and live in 1st ring suburb of Pittsburgh, about 15 minutes into the city. I have a 1200 square foot house, with a brand new kitchen and two bedrooms. We have a decent sized yard with a garden plenty big enough for two people. It could be a lot bigger if we were planning in staying in our house longer. We only paid 60,000 for our house and the only improvements we made were cosmetic. Pittsburgh has a community apiary and a great urban farming organization. Pittsburgh is great because it's small but has lots of cultural organization and activities, safe, and best of all cheap!

Portland Oregon. Enough said. On a $40,000 / year budget you can have it all. The house, the yard, the chicken coop, dogs, and the Prius (but more likely to see a Subaru Outback here). Plus we have mountains, beach, desert and forest all within a couple hours drive. Tons of local resources and support for urban farming...in fact there are a handful of urban farmers who even do it all by bike.

East Nashville has really embraced the urban homestead movement. While some neighborhoods. are fairly gentrified, there are plenty is plenty of cool, cute, affordable housing available. We just bought a 970 sq ft brick cottage with a quarter acre lot for $87,000. It's a somewhat walkable, very bike friendly, and there are amazing shops and restaurants. Check out these links:

http://urbangreenlab.org/ (an new community center dedicated to green urban living!)
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/02/24/travel/26surfacing.html (NY Times profile from this past weekend)

I've lived in both Portland, OR and Pittsburgh, PA. Both are affordable and have lots of young urban homesteaders.

Seattle has a robust and very awesome community garden program called P-Patch. We garden in our backyard & down the street at our P-Patch bed. We love in SE Seattle, which is on the lower end of the spectrum for housing costs. This city allows chickens & goats, with some regulations.

There are plenty of smaller towns south of us, like Buroen, Renton, etc., with lower costs, and yards a-plenty! Plus, our climate is great for year round gardening.

Oops! That's Burien.

I'd recommend Madison, WI. It's a great liberal college town that you could get by in without a car (bus lines run most places, and it's one of the best biking cities in the country). The people of Madison are huge on urban homesteading and like many other people mentioned, you can often get a deal on supplies or produce by trading with neighbors or through community organizations. Property is cheap on the east side of town, and you can find a nice, little house with character and a yard that would be affordable if making around $50K-$60K.

Good luck to Maria, and I'm so happy to see how many great places people have suggested.

Agree with the folks on urban farming in The D! Detroit has ubiquitous beekeeping, though chickens and other livestock are limited to a few towns. Composting, worm bins, rain gardens abound. And with Eastern Market on hand...there is lively retail and exchange. It isn't as organized as other 'granola-y' places I've lived, but I kind of like the rogue farmer vibe. Some of my neighbors home-school their kids--and have made over their (formerly very traditional) yards into classroom-mini-farms. Very cool.

20 something in Tampa, FL. Bought a one-bedroom bungalow at the ripe old age of 25 (71k) near the river, with a detached in-law suite and ginormous yard (1/3 acre) for the proximity to downtown. What I love about Tampa is the fact that there are these arboreal little neighborhoods with tons of plants and space and fertile soil, and animals close to downtown. We have neighborhoods in the city where there are loose chickens.

Regarding the job market I wish we had a more professional and creative type job culture, but we do ok. Hey we have a Hardrock Hotel and Casino. woot! Really though I'm seeing Tampa on an upward climb and have not regretted purchasing property here.

I seriously thought about having chickens...several people in my neighborhood do, and quails also. But they can be work and while I wouldn't feel *too* badly about leaving the tomato plants to nature, I'd feel less ok with doing that to poor chickens. Maybe when I have kids old enough to clean the chicken coops I'll revisit the idea.

Philadelphia.

Lots of community gardens allow those of us, without a back yard, a little green space for very little a year. Our community garden not only gives us a little bit of green, it also builds a community; it brings recent immigrants, young professionals and older neighbors together...people that would probably not meet otherwise. We compost, participate with a city program that feeds shelters and participate in city cleanups.

I know of a few people doing beekeeping. Those with a back yard are lucky, but those without use their roof to keep the bees. In addition our garden is planning on starting hives this year.

There are also co-ops and lots of incentives/ways to eat local. There still are lots of up-and-coming neighborhoods that are quite affordable and really close to center city. We might not have Mediterranean weather, but we definitely have lots to offer!

New Orleans. There are feral chickens here.

You really don't need much space to garden. I kept a lovely container garden on my fire escape roof landing in providence,ri and had a huge haul. It's all about ingenuity. My friends keep two dogs, and four chickens. Plus many cities have community gardenings orgs if you have no space for even containers. Also- Providence is a great city for 20 somethings (I'm one). Rents are super low compared to other nearby east coast cities like Boston and NYC.

both Denver and Boulder, Colorado allow chickens (no roosters) and have huge young adult populations (including myself, in Boulder). I'm part of a CSA, chicken/honey bee/goat milk co-op, a covenant (private community) garden, and am active in local sustainable, Jewish food and environmental awareness (see Hazon, among others). There are lots of local opportunities to get your hands dirty in Colorado, or not, we've got some kick-ass farmers markets once the ground thaws ;-)

My hubby and I live in Dallas (bought our house in our mid 20's) and just set up some great raised beds in our backyard and my chicken coop is in the works! Yards here are mostly good size unless you are in the heart of downtown. There are also a lot of community gardens. Housing is definitely more affordable than many US cities and you get a lot in terms of sq ft for your price.

I know what you mean, however. I at the same time I live in Over The Rhine, Cincinnati. It's as expensive and cheap as you want it to be. I live on 12th in Pendleton, OTR, a block from the casino project, two blocks from Main Street. I rent a second story 1BR with living room, 1 bathroom, big kitchen and sizable living room with huge windows and fireplace, all hardwood floors for $350 a month. My landlord is in over his head with so many other properties that I have free range on how I want the place to look, I even busted off the plaster from a wall for the exposed brick look (Why not right?). We have the most intact 19th century neighborhood in the states. We have garden co-ops, green spaces for days, a street car that is FINALLY! FINALLY! Can't stress that enough FINALLY! After a lengthy two year plus battle on the ballots materializing. Construction began as of what, two Fridays ago? We have Findlay Market! Oldest market house in Ohio! Findlay is real treat, Cincinnati treasure and institution. Downtown Cincinnati is at our doorstep, there's many fortune 500 companies here. More so than Boston? I think? There's plenty of entry level jobs here in OTR/Uptown/Downtown/NKY. We have great Art museums and there's Music Hall. There's also Northside, which needs to get back into the groove of drawing in that Creative Class. But yea? Things are shaping up for us, kids are moving in. Still so many houses to rehab. Cheap rent for, lets say a long, long, long while. I think people give Cincinnati such a bad rap because it's Midwest and not Chicago. Don't forget our Chili! I could go on! As Mr. Roger's said "Won't you be, my neighbor?" Hope I could help here? Stay gold - Wade

Any folks actually making this happen in Brooklyn garden-apartment-type digs on a $50k or less income? What neighborhoods are you in??

Austin folks, where in Austin do you live and how "affordable" are you speaking about? You either make more than $50K or you have found a magic pocket hood. Great, great city and I always wanted to move back there when I retired a couple of years ago. Reading the listings and talking to friends that live there, I can't even find a studio/1 br I can afford.

You might consider Dallas, Texas. I pay $1150 ($1090 + $60 for parking) per month for a 950 square foot loft. The City requires most residential buildings in the CBD to offer the "Intown Housing Program," which offers rental incentives to those making less than $37.5K annually ($42.5K for couples). This program is not advertised so you must ask for it when you are looking for an apartment downtown.

I LOVE ... oh let me be really really clear ... LOOOOOOOVE this post and responses and comments. At leads someone is managing on a budget to actually LIVE...Please do one for Australia, where housing is just insanely expensive and there seem to be very few mid-sized towns. Maybe I haven't looked enough yet.. so would love some recommendations. BTW I have shared this with my friends so we may move..you never know.

So you want a nice life, move to Dublin Ireland, houses are cheap http://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/26-bayside-square-south-sutton-dublin-13/1613802 . This house is in Bayside , yes its needs work but I expect it will sell for around €180k. Its 5 mins to the Dart (Dublin area rapid transit) rail line and about a 3 minute walk from the sea. A good area, six or so miles from the city, beside a nature reserve, beaches and nice walks by the sea.
Besides all that its a great city to live in, sure why wouldn't it be, we have the sea, all beaches are public, mountains, parks, great night life, great places to eat, the history and the Irish people. We have Ryanair which means you can fly to anywhere in Europe cheaply. I would not live anywhere else. :D
Regards Hairymonster

I second Louisville, Kentucky! Cheap housing and an overall great place to live. Small town feel with wonderful arts, music, and food culture. I rent a house with a .25 acre backyard for $575/month. I love it.

pittsburgh, pennsylvania. northside.

First, there's a great article about this topic at HuffPo.

Second, I live in Buffalo and bought two houses on the same lot (both doubles) for $56K when I was 23 years old (five years ago). I've got a garden in the back and live three blocks from an awesome vegetable and aquaponic farm. It's possible to live well and inexpensively here, so much so that I converted one of my apartments into a writing studio that I share with two others. You can have a lot of space here, and the people are great. Plus, there's a beach in the summer!

Pittsburgh is the epitome of a cheap, livable, up-and-coming city. I lived there for 7 years and never paid more than $450 in rent while living in incredibly walkable, tree lined neighborhoods with beautiful parks and world class cultural resources. The amount of cultural diversity and activity is pretty impressive (think anything from symphonies to co-op music venues frequented by the most diy of local bands), partially in response to the large student population associated with all the universities (especially Pitt and Carnegie Mellon). When I say cheap, I mean ACTUALLY cheap, too. Friends have bought fixer-uppers for as little as $40k, and you find real gems for sometimes as little as $80k. Having recently moved to Houston, which is still reasonably affordable, I now realize just how easy life was in Pittsburgh. Almost everything is cheaper there (no sales tax on clothing or groceries), the neighborhoods are prettier, and the traffic is way more manageable. Great neighborhoods for twenty-somethings include Squirrel Hill, Regent Square, Bloomfield, Southside, and Shadyside, depending on your personal preferences. And let's not forget that the artist community in Braddock, PA (just 5 miles up-river from Pittsburgh) has quite a neat little thing going on thanks to programs implemented by the mayor to foster community and creativity.

My husband and I are just entering our 30s, 3 years out of grad school (he has lotsa debt), AND we work in the theater. I didn't even break 20k last year. That being said, we own a duplex in a great neighborhood in St Louis (we paid $115K), so we get extra income renting out the bottom floor apartment. We have a lovely backyard garden and lots of resources for gardening and homesteading like the Botanical Garden and some great local garden stores. Our garden gets a little bigger every year and we have enough room for chickens at some point. I don't think the job market is any better than a lot of mid-sized cities, but if two theater artists can buy a house and live a pretty fun life, I feel like anyone can. And as far as other amenities, if you like good food, free museums and a zoo, good music, baseball and nice neighborhoods with lots of personality, St. Louis is chocked full.

I think this is AWESOME and I love how hard everyone is repping their cities.

I need to put in a word for LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas. I'm 32 and I make $48k a year. My income is definitely on the upper end of the spectrum in my social group, since I'm a lawyer. About 5 years ago I bought an 1100 sq ft (2br/2ba) house and my house payment is about $650 a month. Most of my friends rent, but several of them are in houses with plenty of yard for whatever endeavors they might hope to undertake. A typical 1 bedroom in the midtown or downtown neighborhood rents for $400-$600. I recently apartment hunted with a friend and one of her options was a roomy 1 bedroom that was on the back half of a house (with another apartment in the front), which had a big patio and fenced back yard; it was going for $475. I have a HUGE back yard but I don't garden there because I have a very curious Great Dane. I do have two community gardens within about 5 blocks of my house, one of which has chickens/ducks and the other of which has bees. Both have tons of veggies. I also have several neighbors with full on urban farms going on in the back yards. Little Rock city ordinances are very friendly to urban farmers, with few restrictions beyond those that protect the health and welfare of the animal.

Little Rock also has an amazing local music scene, born of what was a thriving DIY punk scene in the 90's. Really incredible local bands getting national attention in genres from hip hop to metal to alt folk. We have a great literary festival, a thriving film community and film festival, and a burgeoning fashion community with a nascent fashion week. There are three farmers' markets within two miles of my house and some great people organizing efforts to make local food even more accessible.

In terms of job opportunities, state government is the biggest employer here. We also have a few large corporations and two of the biggest nonprofits in the world, Heifer International and the Clinton Foundation. I really can't say enough about how much I love this town. And I'm not alone: most of my friends are musicians and two of them recently discovered that they both have songs about Little Rock with the same title.

Dallas is good for people on a budget, especially those who want to be urban homesteaders. You can have chickens and bees in the city limits. East Dallas is probably the area that would be the best for that. Most neighborhoods (at least affordable ones) do not have rules against gardening in the front. We are planning on putting raised beds in our front yard this year (we just filled our back). There's also an active beekeeping club here (I'm president).
Housing is very affordable here--our house payment is not much more than we were paying in rent for a one bedroom apartment. Of course, you have to add in things like taxes, insurance, and home repairs. But it is definitely affordable. Depending on what you're looking for, you could get a house for $80k - $150k.
A good thing about the south is the growing season--you can pretty much grow something at all times in the year. It does freeze here so you can't grow something like tomatoes or peppers all year, but things like chard will last through the freeze.
Dallas is going to be less expensive than Austin and easier to find a job (do you really want to compete with that many young people just out of college?) I don't know much about other cities' rules on chickens, bees, etc. Houston is really humid but similar to Dallas. I actually kind of like San Antonio, especially around the King William Historic District. Fort Worth is next to Dallas so basically the same too.

Des Moines, IA!!

Where better to learn urban farming than in a farming state? Forbes has continually listed this city as one of the best places to start a career and raise a family. Come caucus season, Des Moines is the best place to take in all the political action. We have a great food scene, lots of trails, and tons of events. We bought a historic victorian 2,500 sqft fully finished home in an up and coming urban neighborhood on a double lot for $140,000 which was on the higher end of the housing market in this neighborhood. Homes are extremely affordable and urban chickens and community gardens abound.

I'm in Minneapolis, MN, am in my mid-20s, I rent, and my husband and I don't make above $25k. Minneapolis is a great place for urban homesteaders! It's a really "green" city, the local libraries are full of resource books, and peole are enthusiastic and supportive of sustainabile lifestyles. While local regulations can sometimes deter people from keeping chickens, etc. you can really garden anywhere. We have about 12 sq ft of space between our duplex and the one next to us, and all of it will be cultivated. Combining that with some container & vertical gardening, it's possible to produce a lot of food! Not having a lot of space or money doesn't need to deter folks from giving urban homesteading a try- it's just a matter of using what you have.

Pittsburgh, PA!
Come live in the Most Livable City! (as rated multiple years in a row by Forbes). There are a lot of homesteaders here and active honeybee- and chicken-raising communities. The real estate market is extremely reasonable - you really get bang for your buck. You can live within the city and still have a relatively large home with a decent sized yard. We have a great public library system, museums, theaters and an active cultural center. Plus, the city itself is beautiful, the neighborhoods are very unique and there are plenty of state parks and beautiful scenery within a few minutes drive from the city.

Chicago has a thriving community of urban beekeepers! I live in an apartment, and though I don't any green space of my own, just a small patio for flowers, I have been keeping bees in Chicago for 4 years now. I reached out to my neighbors and found people with yards who love gardening and who were happy to host my hive. I swap space for some honey, and they get the benefit of my bees' pollination. Reaching out to one's neighbors is a great way to fulfill dreams of gardens and hives and chickens in the city if you don't have a yard of your own.

Austin, Madison, SF? These are not affordable places. Certainly not at $50K/yr or less. Seriously, if you want cheap, Detroit is the way to go. Legalities aren't hammered out yet, but in practice, if you aren't selling hard drugs, stealing, or assaulting anyone, the police are going to leave you alone. And no, it's not nearly as scary as it was. I was there in the 90s, people. That was the nadir. Now the artists have moved in and the gentrification has begun. $50K will get you a nice ass house and good chunk of yard in Detroit. (That's $250/mo for a 30 year note at 5%.) On top of that, if you are a fan of live music, Detroit is a paradise. Sweet Juniper is a great blog to check out, and this video scratches the surface but is a good place to start. http://www.palladiumboots.com/video/detroit-lives#part1

These make me so green with jealousy! I live outside of Toronto, ON. I am (scratch that, WAS) looking into moving into the city proper to enjoy the culture of it all with my two kids, two dogs. I CANNOT for the life of me find a 2 bedroom ANYTHING with a yard. Well, not for under about $2000 a month, unless I want to live in an area known for shootings and muggings, then it drops to about $1400 a month. :S I'm a single mom with two kids, and it's impossible to make a go at a city like Toronto. I've actually settled on moving back to where I went to college- Peterborough, ON. Amazing city, excellent farmers market, free concerts and fireworks twice a week, free zoo, tons of trails, EXCELLENT town for live music... quite a few people I know there have chickens, beehives, huge gardens, etc. Rent is still expensive (I'm looking at about $1100-$1200 for a 2 bedroom that's nice). If I had an excuse to move to Detroit or something I would! It's killing me the amount of rent (oh and I should mention thats rent PLUS all utilities, usually) that we pay here. :(

It was said by a few others but I'll say it again... Pittsburgh, PA. I have a three-story, five-bedroom house I got for $132k in 2008. I live within the city limits and am really close to all the big city amenities that Pittsburgh has. Ihave a huge yard and, if I didn't have young kids, I'd be keeping chickens and bees (both legal here). I have lots of space for gardening, too. There's a reason Pittsburgh keeps being named America's most liveable city...

Pittsburgh or Detroit or any rust belt city, really. Also, most of the south. And really, I can think of several dozen "smaller cities" / "large towns" that are affordable and interesting. I don't think of Seattle as particularly affordable at all, so that made me chuckle. Portland is a little more affordable, but jobs aren't plentiful and that city has its own issues.

it would be quicker to make a list of places to avoid. you could make it happen in these places, but it's harder. san francisco, seattle and new york city come to mind, for example.

I live in PITTSBURGH and work for a non profit. I bought a house 3 years ago, and it wasn't even a fixer upper. It has a yard, is about 1200 sq feet of house, and is 100 years old. I will probably never make 50K and I am single--I bought the house myself. My mortgage is less than my rent would be, and I have a roommate, which makes it even cheaper. Pittsburgh is an incredible place for a DIY youngish person (or a retired person who wants a small city life!) and I heartily encourage anyone to consider moving here!

Pittsburgh and other "rust belt" cities will have what you are looking for--affordability and space to grow! You can even acquire city-owned vacant lots next to your home for very cheap in my city. I knew that I could never afford a home in another place, and Pittsburgh loves new ideas and new people. So I;d say, come on over here for a visit, and see if you like it! :)

I make WAY less than 50k and am pretty successfully homesteading in NYC (in Brooklyn, in Bed-Stuy, specifically). I don't keep chickens for lack of backyard access, but rooftops and balconies provide plenty of space for beehives and container gardens. Scavenging plays a pretty big role. My partner Meg Paska and I - along with some of our friends - document our homesteading ways over at http://brooklynhomesteader.com/

If you honestly want to garden, or raise chickens and/or even cows, goats or sheep for that matter, as well as own some land with an actual house on the land (and not rent) then move out of the busy, smoggy, noisy downtown cities to a rural area. Even water is something that folks that live in cities can no longer heatthfully consume...most purchase bottled water. Why do all of this? It is your one and only life....move to the country either in Canada or the USA. There are reasonably priced small farms for sale with their own wells or springs. Employment....it may not be as lucrative as your employment in the city but the compensations are most certainly present; the cost of living in the city quickly removes most disposable income. I have resided in three large cities and now live in a rural setting. I only wish I had moved here in my twenties but I realize so many have to get the "city slicker stuff" done with before they realize other alternatives.

I'm going to second Little Rock. Local laws are friendly to homesteading (I think chicken laws only state how far your coop has to be from the neighbors); there's a local beekeeping society and plenty of gardeners. There's a great group of folks involved in local food and sustainable living, but the city's small enough that you're not gonna get lost in any crowds. There are several farmer's markets, CSAs, local food buying clubs, and restaurants serving local fare (if not exclusively, at least as a focus). UCA has a project called Conserving Arkansas' Agricultural Heritage that's working on a seed bank of local heirlooms and arranging seed swaps, and the Ozark Folk Center has been a great resource for me as I've gotten into growing and making things. There are a lot of back-to-the-land folks from the '70s still out in the hills, so you sometimes get opportunities to learn from folks who've been at this for decades.

The median household income here is is about $39K, so most people are living under that $50k threshold.

The city has set up a land bank of abandoned/tax delinquent properties that can be bought by just paying off the back taxes. The University of Arkansas architecture school and several development groups are working on some really neat prefab homes and ones made of shipping containers, with loans and other financial help to make them affordable.

The cultural scene here is much more vibrant than most cities of less than 200,000 (a bit over half a million if you count all the suburbs and unincorporated areas), in part because it's the state capital and in part because of the great foundations here.

I recently moved into a freshly-renovated hundred-year-old one-bedroom apartment with a little patch of yard in the back ($550 a month); I've got permission from my my landlord to plant what I want back there (which is pretty common). I'm currently researching what edibles I can grow in shade, since there are several big ol' trees on the lot. He's planning to set up a community gardening area for the tenants in a sunny spot behind another building he owns, but that's not done yet. There are enough vacant lots around that I'm considering doing a little guerilla-style gardening, too.

Our frost-free season averages from late March to early November, and with a little bit of season-extending and wise veggie choices you can grow year-round. Our winters are mild enough for a lot of semi-tropical plants (figs and pomegrantes, depending on variety, and bay laurel and tea as well as a native passionfruit species), but truly tropical plants will need to come inside or into a greenhouse. River cane is native here, and bamboo loves the climate so much as to become almost a weed, so you never have to look hard for staking/trellising materials.

Albuquerque. I don't live there anymore, but I do miss it. The city is zoned for just about anything (including goats, what other city lets you have goats in your back yard?). Houses are extremely affordable. People from places with more water think it's difficult to grow things there, but it's not really. You do have to use good water practices, but it's in Zone 6, which is the exact same zone that I'm in now in Boston. It has 4 seasons, lots of outdoors, but nice city things too.

Boston is getting more urban homestead friendly, and places like Somerville are a little more affordable, but the cost of living is pretty high around here. A friend of mine who make around 30K a year lives in Boston with a roommate and has a beautiful balcony garden. Another friend lives in Dorchester and has a large house and yard (but I think it's likely that she makes over 50K). Technically chickens are not allowed in Somerville, Dorchester, or Boston proper, but some people just ignore the rules and do it anyway. I haven't been brave enough yet (my yard is pretty visible) but I do have a pretty nice garden.

Another vote for Louisville, KY. I've been keeping chickens (5 plus a rooster allowed inside city limits), raising veggies, and looking at putting bees on the roof at my to-the-lotline renovated church. Plenty of cheap housing, unbelievable food, and a pretty strong sustainable movement. Also strong theatre and arts, lots of bourbon and less than 5 hours to Indianapolis, Nashville, St. Louis and Chicago. Very easy life for not much money!

I love all the love for D-Troit! Both of my parents are from Detroit and we spent every summer visiting extended family around the downriver area and then headed to the family cabin off Lake Huron. I've always had an unusual fondness for Detroit and now I know why: it rocks! Here's wishing a speedy recovery to Detroit and those residents beautifying and enriching a culturally and historically significant city. Go Motor City Go!

Indianapolis. Brooklynindiana mentioned how cheap rent is, but buying a home here is even cheaper. You can purchase a modest home and pay only $400 - $500 montly. Plus chickens, goats, and horses are all okay within the city.

I just read that keeping chickens is not cost efficient.

I live cheaply in a great neighborhood in Philadelphia and have a plot in a community garden a short bike ride away.

@Yonella; I have five chickens, and I must say you are right about keeping birds being more expensive than buying your eggs at the market.
But I love keeping them! They are beneficial in so many ways.
They turn all my kitchen scraps and their bedding into compost for my garden. I can cook those decadent rich French recipes that call for 8 eggs without batting an eye. Unless they have just layed an egg, they are quiet. They're beautiful and fun to watch. They're soft and tame, and they boss my cats around. The the eggs they lay are richly colored, dense and thickly shelled. They dig and eat grubs and bugs in my garden. and they are conversation starters in the neighborhood. Neighbors going on walks are always stopping in to check in on the girls. If I bothered to put a little effort into selling some eggs for 3-4 dollars a carton, I would make back what I pay for in feed. I love having backyard chickens!

Unfortunately, Detroit isn't really the viable farming/gardening area that it's made out to be. The soil is not rich for growing plants that are to be consumed by humans or animals - the centrally placed incinerator and riverfront oil refinery can assure that continues. Greenhouse and indoor gardening with completely controlled environments, including clean growing media and filtered water, is the only way to grow SAFE plants for human and animal consumption.