Sarasota, Florida - 2nd Best City in Nation to Find Home Under $800 a Month

Sarasota, Florida recently ranked #2 in U.S. News and World Report's report Where to Buy a Home for Less than $800 a month. They examined housing costs on a monthly payment basis. They took the National Association of Realtors' median home price data for the second quarter of 2010. After subtracting a 20 percent down payment from a market's median price, we plugged the remaining figure into a mortgage calculator using a 4.32 percent interest rate on a 30-year fixed loan.

Here are the top 10 real estate markets to find a home under $800 a month:

1) Austin, Texas

2) Sarasota, Florida

3) Albuquerque, New Mexico

4) Minneapolis/St. Paul:

5) Columbus, Ohio:

6) Phoenix, Ariz.:

7) Columbia, S.C.:

8) Boise, Idaho:

9) Pittsburgh:

10) Atlanta:

Here is an excerpt from the article about Sarasota:

"Although exotic mortgage products and investor excitement sent home prices in Sarasota soaring during the housing boom, the subsequent crash hit the market as hard as anywhere in the state. Median home prices in the Sarasota area plummeted from $311,000 in 2007 to $185,000 in the second quarter of this year. But this steep drop only makes this sun-drenched community on Florida's west coast more attractive for home buyers, says Jack McCabe of McCabe Research & Consulting. McCabe says Sarasota's smaller size provides its residents with a more manageable lifestyle—with less traffic, for example—than big cities like Tampa Bay or Orlando. At the same time, the area has a beautiful waterfront and plenty of art museums and theater productions. Anyone considering buying property in Florida should have Sarasota at the top of their list, according to McCabe "It's a great market," he says. "I really expect in the next 20 years it is going to be one of the most desirable markets in Florida for baby boomers to retire." The median home price in the Sarasota area was $185,000 in the second quarter of this year. After putting 20 percent—or $37,000—down, monthly payments for mortgage principal and interest on a median-priced Sarasota area home come to $734."