Florida and Arizona dominated the higher rankings of WalletHub’s latest data report “Best & Worst Cities for First-Time Homebuyers in 2026,” while California cities occupied most of the list’s lower ranking levels.
For this report, WalletHub number-crunched data from 300 cities of varying sizes using 22 key metrics ranging from housing affordability to the real-estate tax rate to the crime rate.
Palm Bay, Florida, topped the list as the best city for first-time homebuyers, with WalletHub highlights its “active home listings per capita and new building permits per capita, so there are plenty of older and brand-new homes to choose from.” The city was also cited for having fourth-highest millennial homeownership rate, the fourth-highest home appreciation rate, and a low property crime rate.
Rounding out the top 10 list was Surprise, Arizona; Gilbert, Arizona; Tampa; Yuma, Arizona; Peoria, Arizona; Boise, Idaho; Chandler, Arizona; Orlando; and Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
“The best cities for first-time homebuyers not only are affordable both in terms of buying a house and living there afterward, but they also have a lot of housing choices as well as low crime rates and good schools,” said Chip Lupo, WalletHub analyst.
At the other end of the spectrum, nine of the bottom 10 cities considered to be the worst for first-time buyers were in California, with Berkeley at the bottom of the list. Only Anchorage, Alaska (ranked fourth from worst) was not based in California.
WalletHub also observed that Flint, Michigan, has the most affordable housing (median house price divided by median annual household income), which is 9.8 times cheaper than in Santa Barbara, California, the city with the least affordable housing. Flint also has the highest rent-to-price ratio, which is 12.5 times higher than in Santa Monica, California, the city with the lowest.
Honolulu has the lowest real-estate tax rate, which is nine times lower than in Paterson, New Jersey, the city with the highest. And Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has the lowest total home-energy cost per month, which is 4.8 times lower than in Honolulu, the city with the highest.
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