Lots of Illinois cities in there.
Illinois has virtually the highest property taxes in the country, a minimum 6.25% sales tax (some downstate cities have 9.0% total “Home Rule” sales tax), and a 5.0% income tax—and the state is in deep annual deficits with all of that tax money.
This is primarily a list of cities where people are fleeing serious problems, moving to healthier places and driving those prices up because it’s far cheaper to live in those places in the end.
Yep. Most affordable means places one doesn’t want to live.
Per a quick search, while Illinois is second (to New Jersey) on property taxes, Texas is only 5 states behind. And on sales taxes, Texas also has a base of 6.25% with a total of 8.25% in most locations. So there really isn't much difference in the sales and real estate taxes between Illinois and Texas, but the outcomes are quite different.
“This is primarily a list of cities where people are fleeing serious problems, moving to healthier places and driving those prices up because it’s far cheaper to live in those places in the end.”
The elephant in the room that they didn’t dare to mention is that most of these “affordable” places are disproportionately black. Whites have been fleeing for decades.