Buying Your First Home? Arizona Great For Price, Not Life Quality

PHOENIX, AZ — A new report has good news for all you basement dwellers out there — five Arizona cities rank in the top 30 in the country for first-time home buyers. The personal finance website WalletHub compared 300 cities based on more than two dozen key indicators, including market attractiveness, affordability and quality of life.

Overall, Gilbert, Chandler, Peoria, Scottsdale and Surprise all ranked pretty highly, with Phoenix, Mesa and Glendale not far behind.

Here are the rankings for Arizona:

• Gilbert
  • Overall: 10
• Chandler
  • Overall: 11
• Peoria
  • Overall: 13
• Scottsdale
  • Overall: 22
• Surprise
  • Overall: 30
• Phoenix
  • Overall: 45
• Mesa
  • Overall: 64
• Glendale
  • Overall: 88
• Tempe
  • Overall: 104
• Tucson
  • Overall: 121
• Yuma
  • Overall: 154

Gilbert would appear to be the place to be if you're looking for affordability and real-estate market, garnering ranks of 4th and 12th in those categories, respectively. But when it comes to quality of life, Gilbert came in a paltry 196th.

Chandler and Peoria saw similar stories. Chandler ranked 10th and 32nd for affordability and real estate, but just 125th for quality of life. Peoria ranked 20th, 10th and 192nd in the three categories, while Phoenix ranked 30th, 36th and 219th.

The authors said 38 percent of all single-family home purchases last year were made by first-time buyers. When looking for a home, buyers should carefully consider the home’s location as much as its features.

“If the neighborhood is unpleasant, it can sour the experience of a great home,” the authors wrote. “Potential buyers may want to narrow their search down to an area with a good reputation before getting into housing details.”

Overall, the best city in America for those looking to take the plunge is in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. You read that right. While the city ranked a mediocre 55th in affordability, Broken Arrow’s real estate market ranked 26th and its quality of life is the 11th best in the country, the report said.

Here are the top 10 cities in America and their overall scores:

1. Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; 67.09
2. Tampa, Florida; 65.79
3. Centennial, Colorado; 64.74
4. Boise, Idaho; 64.69
5. Grand Rapids, Michigan; 64.65
6. Thornton, Colorado; 64.49
7. Frisco, Texas; 64.26
8. McKinney, Texas; 64.26
9. Cary, North Carolina; 64.03
10. Gilbert, Arizona; 63.98

And you may want to rethink things if you’re looking for your first home in Berkeley, California, or Detroit, Michigan. The two cities ranked 300th and 299th respectively. Flint, Michigan, and San Francisco and San Mateo, both in California, rounded out the bottom five cities with scores in the mid 30s.

Akron and Toledo in Ohio can claim the most affordable housing, the report found, while Berkeley and San Mateo were the least affordable. Meanwhile, Laredo, Texas, and Flint had the lowest cost of living, while Sunnyvale and Fremont — both in California — had the highest.

When ranking the cities, WalletHub gave equal weight to affordability, real-estate market and quality of life.

The main factor in the affordability category was housing affordability, which received a triple weight. It was calculated by dividing the median housing price by the median yearly household income.

The primary factors in the real-estate market category were the rent-to-price ratio and median home-price appreciation.

The quality of local schools received a double weight in the quality of life category, which was the highest.

WalletHub used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Council for Community and Economic Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Zillow, FBI, Insurance Information Institute, AreaVibes and Renwood RealtyTrac, as well as WalletHub’s own research.

Click here to see the complete rankings.

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