Many factors lead to a home purchase decision, most significantly affordability and quality of life. And for first-time homebuyers, the pressure to not only choose the right home but the right market can become overwhelming.
To help sort through the endless potential, WalletHub has released it’s findings for the best and worst cities for first-time buyers, which compared a sample of 300 U.S. cities across three dimensions focusing on affordability, the attractiveness of the real estate market and quality of life in determining the most favorable markets.
According to the data, Chesapeake, Virginia, population 240,000-plus, took the top spot, followed by Gilbert, Arizona; Lincoln, Nebraska; Cape Coral, Florida; and Boise, Idaho. Unfortunately, our neighbors up north in Berkeley landed at the very bottom of this year’s ranking.
In fact, driven largely by housing affordability and cost of living, a number of California markets found themselves toward the bottom of the list. Those include SoCal and NorCal hot spots like Long Beach (#285), Pasadena (#287), Santa Clara (#289), Santa Barbara (#294), Los Angeles (#296), Santa Monica (#297), San Francisco (#298) and Oakland (#299).
Elsewhere in the report, WalletHub notes other selling points for first-timers to consider, such as cities with the lowest real-estate tax rate, including Honolulu, Denver and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Additionally, markets with the lowest total home-energy costs were identified as New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Westminster, Colorado.
You can read more in the full report by clicking here.