I've lived in a very inexpensive city in Ohio. I'd rather pay more not to hear gunshots as I'm drifting off to sleep on weekend nights (and I lived in a relatively "good" section of the city). Death is even cheaper than cheap housing, but that doesn't make it a desirable situation.
(And if you have kids, you probably want at least halfway-decent public schools, which many of these cities don't have.)
Someone should mash this up with crime statistics to find the most peaceful cheap cities. They will probably be somewhere in the middle of Tornado Alley though.
(And if you have kids, you probably want at least halfway-decent public schools, which many of these cities don't have.)