With mortgage rates hitting record lows but consumers struggling financially, the personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on 2020’s Best Real Estate Markets.
To determine the most attractive real-estate markets in the U.S., WalletHub compared 300 cities across 24 key metrics. The data set ranges from median home-price appreciation to home sales turnover rate to job growth.
The best real estate markets were Boise, Idaho; Seattle; Frisco, Texas; Nashville, Tenn.; Austin, Texas; Spokane Valley, Wash.; Denton, Texas; and Renton, Wash.
The worst locations were Newark, N.J.; Hartford, Conn.; Shreveport, La.; Waterbury, Conn.; Bridgeport, Conn.; Jackson, Miss.; Dayton, Ohio; Albany, N.Y.; Baltimore; and Miami Beach, Fla.
Best versus worst features included:
- Berkeley, Calif., has the lowest share of homes with negative equity, 1.17 percent, which is 32.8 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 38.36 percent.
- Berkeley, Calif., has the lowest average number of days until a house is sold, 34, which is 8.1 times lower than in Miami Beach, Fla., the city with the highest at 276.
- South Gate, Calif., has the lowest vacancy rate, 1.88 percent, which is 19.6 times lower than in Miami Beach, Fla., the city with the highest at 36.91 percent.
- Akron, Ohio, has the lowest home price as a share of income, 190.14 percent, which is 7.8 times lower than in Berkeley, Calif., the city with the highest at 1,482.00 percent.