Affordability in homeownership has been an elusive concept for the past several years, and a new data analysis by WalletHub has identified the major cities which are the most and least affordable for prospective buyers.
In a number crunch of 300 cities using 10 metrics ranging from home prices to tax rates to vacancy levels, WalletHub determined that Montgomery, Alabama, was the nation’s most affordable city for homebuyers. Rounding out the top 10 of affordable homeownership cities were Flint, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; Detroit; Akron, Ohio; Warren, Michigan; Pittsburgh; Yuma, Arizona; Springfield, Illinois; and Palm Bay, Florida.
While the 10 most affordable cities spanned a diverse geographic spread, the 10 least affordable cities were somewhat more restricted – eight of the 10 were in California, with Santa Barbara taking the dishonors as the nation’s least affordable city. Only Boulder, Colorado, and New York City were among the non-California locations on that list.
Within specific metrics, Honolulu had the lowest median real estate tax rate at 0.30% while Waterbury, Connecticut, had the highest at 3.59%. Flint, Michigan, has the highest rent-to-price ratio, 26.64% and Santa Monica, California, had the lowest at 1.66%.
Miami Gardens, Florida, had the highest median home price appreciation at 94.61% and Hampton, Virginia, had the lowest at 1.60%. And Miami Beach, Florida, had the highest vacancy rate at 35.24% while South Gate, California, had the lowest at 2.02%.
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