One Third Of All Home Buyers Are First Timers

With school starting soon and July being one of the top months for home sales and a third of all home buyers also being first-timers, the personal-finance website WalletHub took an in-depth look at 2016’s Best & Worst Cities for First-Time Home Buyers. Clearly Colorado is a leader with five or the top ten while the top cities in Arizona are Suprise at 55 and Gilbert at 59.

To determine the most favorable housing markets for first-time buyers, WalletHub’s analysts took the pulse of real estate in 300 cities of varying sizes. Their data set ranges from housing affordability to real-estate tax rate to property-crime rate.

Best vs. Worst

• Santa Monica, Calif., has the lowest housing affordability, 6.6 percent, which is 12 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest, 76.5 percent.
• Honolulu has the lowest real-estate tax rate, 0.29 percent, which is 12 times lower than in Waukegan, Ill., the city with the highest, 3.49 percent.
• Detroit has the highest rent-to-price ratio, 23.17 percent, which is six times higher than in Sunnyvale, Calif., the city with the lowest, 3.64 percent.
• Laredo, Texas, has the lowest cost-of-living index, which is three times lower than in New York, the city with the highest.
• Mission Viejo, Calif., has the lowest number of property crimes per 1,000 residents, 8.9, which is 12 times lower than in Miami Beach, Fla., the city with the highest, 102.7.
• Shreveport, La., has the lowest average energy cost per household, $127.60, which is four times lower than in Honolulu, the city with the highest, $504.30.

For the full report and to see where your city ranks
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