May 6, 2024
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WalletHub Press Release
2019's Best & Worst Cities for First-Time Home Buyers
With July being one of the top months for home sales and nearly 40% of 2018’s single-family home purchases made by first-time buyers, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2019's Best & Worst Cities for First-Time Home Buyers as well as accompanying videos.
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 27 key metrics. The data set ranges from housing affordability to real-estate tax rate to property-crime rate.
| Best Cities for First-Time Home Buyers | Worst Cities for First-Time Home Buyers | |||
| 1 | Tampa, FL | 291 | Elizabeth, NJ | |
| 2 | Overland Park, KS | 292 | Daly City, CA | |
| 3 | Thornton, CO | 293 | El Monte, CA | |
| 4 | Grand Rapids, MI | 294 | Newark, NJ | |
| 5 | Boise, ID | 295 | Westminster, CA | |
| 6 | Greeley, CO | 296 | San Mateo, CA | |
| 7 | Peoria, AZ | 297 | Oakland, CA | |
| 8 | Arvada, CO | 298 | Santa Barbara, CA | |
| 9 | McKinney, TX | 299 | Detroit, MI | |
| 10 | Centennial, CO | 300 | Berkeley, CA | |
Best vs. Worst
- Akron, Ohio, has the most affordable housing (median house price divided by median annual household income), with a ratio of 1.83, which is 8.2 times cheaper than in Berkeley, California, the city with the least affordable housing, with a ratio of 15.04.
- Honolulu has the lowest real-estate tax rate, 0.29 percent, which is 12.9 times lower than in Waterbury, Connecticut, the city with the highest at 3.74 percent.
- Cleveland has the highest rent-to-price ratio, 16.00 percent, which is 6.1 times higher than in Sunnyvale, California, the city with the lowest at 2.61 percent.
- Shreveport, Louisiana, has the lowest average energy cost per household, $93.58, which is 4.2 times lower than in Honolulu, the city with the highest at $388.65.
View the full report and your city’s rank.
