Phoenix, Tucson In Arizona’s Top 10 Cities To Own A Home

ARIZONA – A recent report by LendingTree ranks Phoenix No. 2 and Tucson No. 7 on the list of Top 10 Cities to Own a Home in Arizona. The study looked at factors including unemployment rates, average commute times and home value appreciation, among others, utilizing U.S. Census Bureau information for 2013 through 2017. The study analyzed 11 cities or towns in Arizona, and rated each metric such as Median Home Value on a scale of 1 to 11, with 11 being the best rating for each metric and 1 being the worst.

Phoenix, ranked at No. 2 on the report, followed the No. 1 ranked Flagstaff, with Phoenix housing values about $50,000 less than Flagstaff's. However, Phoenix’s Unemployment Rate (6.2) scored lower than Flagstaff’s at 8.3. Average commute time for Phoenicians is 26.2 minutes, while Flagstaff commuters spend about 18 minutes getting to work. Meanwhile, Phoenix’s Median Home Value Appreciation from 2013-2017 (29 percent) was far higher than Flagstaff’s at about 10 percent. The Housing Cost Change numbers were Phoenix at -5 percent, while Flagstaff’s was at -1 percent. The bottom line: Flagstaff’s total Homeowner Score was 74.5, while Phoenix’s was 70.9.

Meanwhile, Tucson fell in at No. 7 among the 11 Arizona towns and cities studied, just behind Payson and just ahead of Yuma. Payson’s Median Housing Values were $184,000, while Tucson’s were somewhat lower at $173,000. Payson scored top numbers for its Unemployment Rate at 11, while Tucson scored 8.4. Average commute time for Payson workers was reported at 18 minutes, while Tucsonians spent about 24 minutes in their vehicles. Meanwhile, Median Home Value Appreciation for Payson came in at 8.60 percent, while Tucson’s rate was far lower at 0.46 percent. The Housing Cost Change metric also reflected a significant variance between the two cities, with Payson at -3.31 percent and Tucson at -7.70 percent. The two cities’ overall scores weren’t far apart, though, with Payson at 58.2 and Tucson earning 56.4.

The report also indicated that the outlook for Arizona homeownership is a mixed bag right now. The University of Arizona’s Eller Economic and Business Research Center reported that in the first three months of 2018, prices across Arizona for single-family homes had risen by 9 percent as compared to 2017. Also, the 2018 home value appreciation rate still hovered 25 percent under the high 2006 levels prior to the Great Recession.

See how the other Arizona cities ranked at lendingtree.com.