With the median home sales price having skyrocketed from $313,000 in Q1 2019 to $436,800 in Q1 2023, the personal-finance website WalletHub recently released its report on 2023’s “Most Affordable Cities for Home Buyers.”
In order to determine the most affordable cities for homebuyers, WalletHub compared 300 U.S. cities across 10 key metrics. The data set ranges from the costs of homes and their maintenance to tax rates and vacancy rates.
The most affordable cities for home purchases were, in order, Montgomery, Ala.; Flint, Mich.; Toledo, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Akron, Ohio; Warren, Mich.; Pittsburgh; Yuma, Ariz.; Springfield, Ill., and Palm Bay, Fla.
Some of the least affordable cities in California were San Francisco, Pasadena, Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale, Santa Monica, Berkley and Santa Barbara. Others included New York and Boulder, Colo.
Some of the best versus worst takeaways from the survey included:
- Springfield, Ill., has the most affordable housing (median house price divided by median annual household income), 1.67, which is 17.5 times cheaper than in Santa Barbara, Calif., the city with the least affordable housing, with a ratio of 29.24.
- Honolulu has the lowest median real-estate tax rate, 0.30 percent, which is 12 times lower than in Waterbury, Conn., the city with the highest at 3.59 percent.
- Flint, Mich. has the highest rent-to-price ratio, 26.64 percent, which is 16 times higher than in Santa Monica, Calif., the city with the lowest at 1.66 percent.
- Miami Gardens, Fla., has the highest median home price appreciation, 94.61 percent, which is 59.1 times higher than in Hampton, Va., the city with the lowest at 1.60 percent.
- Miami Beach, Fla., has the highest vacancy rate, 35.24 percent, which is 17.4 times higher than in South Gate, Calif., the city with the lowest at 2.02 percent.