For many young people, getting onto the housing market is no small feat.
Housing shortages and the seemingly ever-increasing cost of living can be just some of the hurdles to taking the first step on the property ladder.
Newsweek has mapped the best and worst cities for first time buyers, according to a recent WalletHub study.
The study, published last month, compared 300 cities of varying sizes based on market attractiveness, affordability and quality of life, with a dataset that ranged from cost of living to real-estate taxes and crime rate.
According to the metrics of the study, the top 10 cities for first-time buyers were:
- Palm Bay, FL
- Cape Coral, FL
- Port St. Lucie, FL
- Tampa, FL
- Orlando, FL
- Surprise, AZ
- Lakeland, FL
- Boise, ID
- Gilbert, AZ
- Henderson, NV
Florida’s Palm Bay ranked first, as it led the country in terms of both home listings per capita and new building permits per capita – suggesting adequate supply in the area. The study claimed that Palm Bay had the third-highest millennial home-ownership rate.
The city was also noted for its home appreciation rate – WalletHub said Palm Bay homes were worth 106 percent more in 2022 than 2016.
Similarly, Cape Coral and Port St. Lucie were touted in the study for having large numbers of home listings and new building permits, as well as low crime rates compared to many of the cities included in the report.
Of the 10 worst-ranked cities, eight were in California. These were Berkeley, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Glendale and Costa Mesa.
“In California, eight out of the 10 worst cities for first-time homebuyers are ranked poorly due to high costs of living, elevated real estate prices and competitive markets,” WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe told Newsweek. “These factors make it challenging for new buyers to afford homes, leading them to seek more affordable housing in other states.”
The report comes during an election year, which can have ramifications for the housing market.
“There is certainly a human element to housing prices and mortgage rates. As a result, election years can bring more volatility to prices and rates than in non-elections years. However, those moments of volatility are fleeting,” Jason Obradovich, chief investment officer at mortgage lender New American Funding, told Newsweek.
“Overall, the effects on the market are more slow-moving and less prone to swings of emotion. It’s always best to look at the housing market through a long-term lens,” he added.
Obradovich also told Newsweek that the outcome of November’s election could well have implications on the price of homes in the U.S.
“More than anything, what typically affects the housing market in election years is the market’s reaction to the election results. If the market believes the party that wins the election will stimulate growth, then we could see positive effects on the overall economic outlook,” he said.
“The challenges that impact housing today are unfortunately more structural than policy-driven, which means it will be very difficult for any administration to do anything that truly affects the market.”
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