Study: Knightdale among most affordable places to live in North Carolina

In North Carolina, 10 small towns topped the list. All 10 had an average annual mortgage payment of less than $9,000, and several were under $6,000.

The study also took into account annual property tax, median incomer and annual homeowner's insurance.

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The most affordable place to live was Half Moon, in Onslow County, which had an average annual mortgage payment of $5,987.

Following it, starting with the second-to-least expensive, was: Stokesdale (Guilford County), Lewisville (Forsyth County), Sawmills (Caldwell County), Indian Trail (Union County), Winterville (Pitt County), Knightdale (Wake County), King (Stokes and Forsyth counties), Trinity (Randolph County) and Nashville (Nash County).

Most towns had a median annual income above $50,000.

Sawmills had the lowest income of the 10, at $41,875, and Lewisville had the highest, at $81,250.

Beyond those 10 most affordable towns, other municipalities in North Carolina were not ranked, but counties were ranked nationally.

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In Wake County, the average annual mortgage payment was $11,555 about $963 per month. Median annual include was $73,577.

In Durham County, the average annual mortgage was $9,029, and the median income was $56,393.

In Onslow County, the most affordable county in the state, the average annual mortgage payment was $7,117, about $598 per month. In Half Moon, the average resident would pay less than $500 per month in mortgage.