With the median home sales price having skyrocketed from $313,000 in Q1 2019 to $416,900 in Q1 2025, personal-finance website WalletHub has reflected the change in its “2025’s Most Affordable Cities for Home Buyers” report.
In order to determine the most affordable cities for home buyers, WalletHub compared 300 U.S. cities for the survey.
The most affordable cities (in order) were Flint, Mich., Detroit, Mich., Pittsburgh, Pa., Surprise, Ariz., Akron, Ohio; Yuma, Ariz.; Memphis, Tenn.; Augusta, Ga.; Fort Wayne, Ind. and Indianapolis, Ind.
The least affordable (in order) were Pasadena, Calif., New York, N.Y. and the following California cities in Burbank, Los Angeles, Glendale, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Berkely, Santa Monica and Santa Barbara.
Best versus worst takeaways from the survey were:
- Flint, Mich. has the most affordable housing (median house price divided by median annual household income) which is 9.7 times cheaper than in Santa Barbara, Calif., the city with the least affordable housing.
- Honolulu has the lowest median real-estate tax rate, which is 10 times lower than in Paterson, N.J., the city with the highest.
- Flint, Mich. has the highest rent-to-price ratio, which is 14 times higher than in Santa Monica, Calif., the city with the lowest.
- Boise, Idaho, has the highest median home price appreciation, which is 6.3 times higher than in Stamford, Conn., the city with the lowest.
- Miami Beach, Fla., has the highest vacancy rate, which is 17.9 times higher than in Fontana, Calif., the city with the lowest.