Mortgage interest rates are hitting record lows but many Americans are struggling financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The personal-finance website WalletHub has released its report on “2020’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 26 key metrics. The dataset ranges from housing affordability to real-estate tax rate to property-crime rate.
According to the study, the best cities to buy a first home were Henderson ,Nev.; Boise, Idaho; Thornton, Colo.; Chesapeake, Va.; Gilbert, Ariz.; Tampa, Fla.; Las Vegas; Peoria, Ariz.; and Lincoln, Neb.
The worst locations featured several cities in California, including San Mateo, Daly City, Los Angeles, Oakland, Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Berkeley. The others to make this list included Miami Beach, Fla.; New York and Detroit.
Other key points included:
- Akron, Ohio, having the most affordable housing (median house price divided by median annual household income), with a ratio of 1.90, which is 7.8 times cheaper than in Berkeley, the city with the least affordable housing, with a ratio of 14.82.
- Honolulu has the lowest real-estate tax rate, 0.29 percent, which is 13.1 times lower than in Waterbury, Conn., the city with the highest at 3.79 percent.
- Rochester, N.Y., has the highest rent-to-price ratio, 15.88 percent, which is 4.7 times higher than in Sunnyvale, Calif., the city with the lowest at 3.38 percent.
- Westminster, Colo., has the lowest total home-energy cost per month, $99.29, which is 3.9 times lower than in Honolulu, the city with the highest at $388.18.