Affordable housing rated in university football towns

Stillwater, Okla., the home of Oklahoma State University, is No. 1 in the Big 12 — when it comes to affordable housing, that is.Coldwell Banker examined the housing markets in towns with the 119 college football bowl subdivision schools and created its college home price comparison index. The company looked at the average price of a house covering 2,220 square feet, with four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a family room and a two-car garage. It found that the average price of a home in Stillwater was $170,500. At the other end of the ranking was Boulder, Colo., where the University of Colorado is located. The average price there is a whopping $578,047. Lawrence leans toward the high end of the Big 12 pack, with an average home price of $239,412. It is sandwiched between College Station, Texas (Texas A&M) at $213,755 and Austin, Texas (University of Texas) at $241,325.Interestingly, the average price of the same house in Manhattan was higher than Lawrence: $266,921.Here is the entire Big 12 list, from most affordable to least affordable:1. Stillwater, Okla.: $170,500.2. Lubbock, Texas: $170,700.3. Waco, Texas: $184,325.4. Columbia, Mo.: $205,300.5. Norman, Okla.: $211,357.6. Ames, Iowa: $213,450.7. College Station, Texas: $213,755.8. Lawrence, $239,412.9. Austin, Texas: $241,325.10. Manhattan: $266,921.11. Lincoln, Neb.: $281,217.12. Boulder, Colo.: $578,047.The most affordable college town in terms of the 2,220 square-foot house was Akron, Ohio, (home to the University of Akron) at $135,780. The most expensive goes was in Palo Alto, Calif. (Stanford University) at $1.74 million.