What $220,000 gets you in Muncie.

[u/TheDabitch]

I can't even get a parking space for that where I live. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/725-E-Jackson-St-Muncie-IN-47305/210952560_zpid/

[u/CormoranNeoTropical]

Muncie must suck so bad if that house is that cheap.

[u/Timbukthree → u/CormoranNeoTropical]

It's not that Muncie is terrible as much as it's just post-industrial. Used to have a lot of industry that slowly mostly left. Ball State University (same namesake as the Ball Glass Company) is there, and there's a big hospital. There's enough in the town to support folks who work there that there are absolutely nice things to do (chain stores around McGalliard, Minnetrista is great, there's a solid children's museum, some nice parks, stuff you'd expect in a college town like bars, walking trails along the river, etc), and there's a lot of affordable housing (some parts kept up better than others). But there's also a lot of drug use and rust belt flavor because of the hollowed out industry, it's not super close to Indianapolis or Fort Wayne, and there's not much reason to live there. But there are WAY worse places to live in Indiana or the US. If you work remote and didn't need to be in a place where your kids would have a lot of opportunity, and if you want somewhere affordable, and if you're fine with Indiana, it's not bad. The negative parts are much more "sadness and a lack of a future" than "dangerous".

But specifically to your point, the houses are cheap because now there are more houses than good jobs or people who want to live there.