A nice home in a good suburb of St. Louis, priced at $169,900:

A roughly comparable home in a good suburb of Baltimore (our area), priced at ...  $364,900:

While for time-saving I didn't go toe-to-toe with the match, the houses are probably pretty indicative of the differences between the two areas (I understand it's about a 40% price difference).  Not only are homes here more expensive, but it seems a better quality can be gotten for the more reasonable price, in many circumstances. Wages are supposed to be about 5-10% less in MO.

What can be bought for near $170k?   Not very much.  Here's one in our area ( less-nice neighborhood than the previous house)  in much need of a rehab for $170,000:

That's pretty-much  the basement on home prices in our area.  

There's also a two bedroom, one bath for the low, low price of $175,000!