Affordable Places To Escape The Cold

Airlines and hotels in warmer locales are cutting prices to keep the tourists coming.

In Pictures: Affordable Places To Escape The Cold

Spending winter in a major city is substantially less fun than those scenic television shots might lead one to believe. The sidewalks are icy, the skyscrapers work together to perform perfect wind tunnels and crazed hordes of holiday shoppers can make December almost intolerable.

When average daily temperatures dip far below freezing, it's time to get out of the city. But with the economy struggling, sunbathing on a private beach in Maldives may not be a financially feasible option.

In Pictures: Affordable Places To Escape The Cold

Fortunately, getting warm this winter doesn't have to break the bank. Travelers who stick close to home, select up-and-coming locations and score travel deals from financially ailing resorts and airlines can get out of the cold for an affordable price.

Central America and the Caribbean deliver a major cost-saving advantage, according to Tim Leffel, author of The World's Cheapest Destinations: 21 Countries Where Your Money Is Worth a Fortune.

"If you're coming from the U.S., you don't have to pay very much to get there, and there's less jet lag, so you can really hit the ground running," he says. Better yet, both regions contain a plethora of lesser-known destinations where the U.S. dollar is especially strong.

Up-and-Coming Spots
Honduras, home of the largest coral reef in the northern hemisphere, is behind the tourism curve, as just 383,000 non-Central American tourists visited the country in 2007. This is starting to change.

Leffel recommends the island of Roatan off the country's Atlantic coast, where travelers can expect warm weather and wallet-friendly hotel deals, like the $799 low-season dive special at Anthony's Key Resort. The price includes a room for seven nights, three meals a day, a tropical picnic, an island fiesta, a buoyancy control workshop and dive equipment and transportation for up to 23 dives. Roatan is especially attractive for new divers--certification there is cheaper than almost anywhere else in the world.

Well-priced homes, enviable job growth and proximity to vibrant cities make these top 10 spots good choices in recessionary times.

In Pictures: Affordable Places To Weather The Downturn

Last week, unemployment hit a 20-year high, rising to 6.5% over the month before.

Folks in Denver-area Adams County may fare better than others nationwide. Year-over-year job growth is 3.4%, thanks to a diversified local economy that includes aerospace, aviation and bioscience jobs. Homeowners pay a scant $1,536 in property taxes and enjoy some of the most affordable properties in the country.

Residents in Madison County, Ala., Pulaski County, Ark., Hamilton County, Ohio, and Greenville County, S.C. have a similar story. They're within commuting distance to Huntsville, Little Rock, Cincinnati and Greenville, respectively, boast enviable job growth figures and round out our list of the top five spots to live affordably during an economic downturn.

Behind The Numbers
In compiling our list, we looked at three factors: affordability, property taxes and job growth. Moody's Economy.com provided us with an affordability index for each county. A score of 100 indicates that a family earning the median income in the surrounding metropolitan area can afford to buy a median-priced home. The higher the score, the higher the affordability.

In Pictures: Affordable Places To Weather the Downturn

The U.S. Census Bureau provided information on 2007 property taxes, and year-over-year job growth data came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

We cut out counties that don't include distinct townships that are within an hour's drive from an urban area.

Lone Star Spots
Several counties in Texas appear on our list. This is because homes statewide are relatively affordable thanks to low fees for building permits and liberal zoning policies. Property taxes, however, zing homeowners; Texas has neither state nor city income taxes, so local governments rely on property taxes as their main source of funding.