With July being one of the top months for home sales and nearly 40 percent of 2018’s single-family home purchases made by first-time buyers, the personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on 2019’s best and worst cities for these first-time buyers.
To determine the most favorable housing markets for first-time buyers, WalletHub took the pulse of real estate in 300 cities of varying sizes using 27 key metrics. The data set ranges from housing affordability to real-estate tax rate to property-crime rate.
The best cities for first-time homebuyers were Tampa, Fla.; Overland Parks, Kan.; Thornton, Colo.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Boise, Idaho; Greely, Colo.; Peoria, Ariz.; Arvada, Colo.; McKinney, Texas; and Centennial, Colo.
The worst locations for first-time homebuyers were Elizabeth, N.J.; Daly City, Calif.; El Monte, Calif.; Newark, N.J.; Westminster, Calif.; San Mateo, Calif.; Oakland, Calif.; Santa Barbara, Calif.; Detroit; and Berkeley, Calif.
The breakdowns for best versus worst included:
- Akron, Ohio, with the most affordable housing (median house price divided by median annual household income), with a ratio of 1.83, which is 8.2 times cheaper than in Berkeley, Calif., the city with the least affordable housing, with a ratio of 15.04;
- Honolulu with the lowest real-estate tax rate, 0.29 percent, which is 12.9 times lower than in Waterbury, Conn., the city with the highest at 3.74 percent;
- Cleveland with the highest rent-to-price ratio, 16.00 percent, which is 6.1 times higher than in Sunnyvale, Calif., the city with the lowest at 2.61 percent; and
- Shreveport, La., with the lowest average energy cost per household, $93.58, which is 4.2 times lower than in Honolulu, the city with the highest at $388.65.