Climate & lifestyle
Lowest disaster-risk affordable US cities
The safest FEMA risk scores among cities below the national cost average.
Insurance and peace of mind both track natural-hazard risk. These cities index below the national cost average and carry the lowest FEMA disaster-risk scores.
Published by WhereToHQ research. Calculated from committed source data with no generated editorial text.
What the ranking shows
- Hampton, VA leads this list at 45/100 for disaster risk.
- Across the 15 published entries, disaster risk ranges from 45/100 to 77/100. The other columns show tradeoffs that the headline order cannot capture.
| # | City | Disaster risk | Cost of living index | Median home price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hampton, VA138k | 45/100 | 93 | $245,700 |
| 2 | Lynchburg, VA79k | 49/100 | 87 | $229,800 |
| 3 | Portsmouth, VA97k | 54/100 | 92 | $246,900 |
| 4 | Virginia Beach, VA456k | 58/100 | 100 | $400,000 |
| 5 | Suffolk, VA99k | 60/100 | 100 | $347,400 |
| 6 | Toledo, OH267k | 66/100 | 74 | $114,500 |
| 7 | Athens, GA127k | 67/100 | 91 | $299,200 |
| 8 | Warner Robins, GA83k | 71/100 | 83 | $185,700 |
| 9 | Kansas City, MO511k | 71/100 | 89 | $260,000 |
| 10 | Nampa, ID110k | 72/100 | 96 | $370,800 |
| 11 | Newport News, VA184k | 72/100 | 93 | $260,600 |
| 12 | Broken Arrow, OK118k | 73/100 | 85 | $250,400 |
| 13 | Lawrence, KS96k | 75/100 | 85 | $292,700 |
| 14 | Bloomington, IN80k | 76/100 | 90 | $321,400 |
| 15 | Rio Rancho, NM109k | 77/100 | 91 | $310,200 |
Ranked from public data we track (US Census/ACS, BLS, EIA, FEMA, NOAA, Tax Foundation) and recomputed on every data refresh. Figures are estimates for comparison, not advice; open any city to see all facets.
Candidate rules: 40,000 or more residents; Cost of living index at or below 100. Ranking rule: Disaster risk, lowest first.
WhereToHQ loads at most the 500 largest eligible national candidates, or 300 candidates for a state list, before applying the published rules. Missing values are excluded from a direct sort or hard filter. In a weighted score, an unknown value is neutral rather than favorable.