With 26 percent of home purchases last year made by first-time buyers, the personal-finance website WalletHub recently released its report on “2023's Best & Worst Cities for First-Time Home 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 22 key metrics. The data set ranges from housing affordability to real-estate tax rate to property-crime rate, WalletHub said in a release.
The best cities to purchase one’s first home were found in Florida with Palm Beach, Cape Coral, Tampa, Port St. Lucie and Orlando ranking No, 1-5. Surprise and Gilbert, Ariz., ranked 6th and 7th, while Boise, Idaho, Chesapeake, Va. and Henderson, Nev., ranked 7 thru 10.
Nine of the top 10 worst cities to purchase a first home were all located in California (Daly City, Burbank, San Mateo, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and Berkeley), while Anchorage, Alaska, also made the “worst” list.
Other best versus worst takeaways from the survey were:
- Springfield, Ill., has the most affordable housing (median house price divided by median annual household income), with a ratio of 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 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.
- Baton Rouge, La., has the lowest total home-energy cost per month, $100.84, which is 3.6 times lower than in Bakersfield, Calif., the city with the highest at $360.76.