(WFLA) — Planning to buy a home next year or planning to relocate to a new city?
Zillow compiled a list of the 10 best metro areas for first-time homeowners based on mortgage affordability, rent affordability, inventory-to-buyer ratio, and share of listings with a price cut.
These are:
- Wichita, KS
- Toledo, OH
- Syracuse, NY
- Akron, OH
- Cleveland, OH
- Tulsa, OK
- Detroit, MI
- Pittsburgh, PA
- St Louis, MO
- Little Rock, AR
According to Zillow, areas with lower rents help prospective homeowners by cutting down on the time they’d need to save up for a down payment while having a higher ratio of listing to buyers allows for better bargaining power.
The typical rent payment for people in Wichita, for example, was 27% of their personal income as of October 2022, Zillow found. The years needed to save for a 10% down payment was 19 years.
Wichita also boasted a much higher inventory-to-buyer ratio of 22 to one. The other metro area in Zillow’s list had ratios of five, six, or seven to one.
You can read more about Zillow’s report here.
