These 30 housing markets are good for first-time homebuyers because of their affordability, stability, and quality of life, the New York Times reports.
To help, WalletHub, the financial website, looked at 300 cities to determine those best suited to first-time buyers, ranking each on 27 metrics in three categories, including affordability (housing prices, insurance, cost of living and other factors).
The other two categories the study considered were the health of the local real estate market (including how long it would take for the monthly savings of buying over renting to surpass the cost of a down payment) and quality of life (including weather, crime rate, recreational options, schools and the share of residents around the same age as young buyers).
For large cities, Tampa, Fla., led the rankings, followed by Colorado Springs, Colo., Atlanta, and Lexington, Ky. Overland Park, Kan., and Grand Rapids, Mich., took the top two spots for mid-sized cities, and Thornton and Greeley, Colo., topped for small cities.
