Denver Housing Market Among Most Competitive In U.S.: Study

DENVER, CO -- Denver is one of the most competitive housing markets in the U.S. but that surely comes as no surprise to residents of the Mile High City. According to a study released by LendingTree, Denver ranks among the top 10 most competitive housing markets in the country.

LendingTree’s rankings of the 100 most competitive housing markets in the U.S. were based on factors that “truly create a competitive market for homebuyers,” the company explained. To compile the rankings, LendingTree looked at factors like how many house hunters are putting more money down, have high credit scores and “start loan shopping before home shopping.”

To come up with the rankings, LendingTree said it looked at 1.5 million purchase mortgage loan requests that came through the company’s marketplace in the 100 largest U.S. cities for 2017.

The cities were then ranked based on the following three criteria:

• The share of buyers shopping for a mortgage before identifying the house they want
• Average down payment percentage
• Percentage of buyers who have prime credit (above 680)

Sixty-five percent of Denver home buyers obtained mortgage before identifying the house they wanted, the study found. The average down payment was 16 percent, and 56 percent of buyers have prime credit scores.

Here are the top 10 most competitive housing markets in the country:

San Francisco, California (1)
San Jose, California (2)
Denver, Colorado (3)
San Diego, California (4)
Ventura, California (5)
Los Angeles, California (6)
Seattle, Washington (7)
Honolulu, Hawaii (8)
Portland, Oregon (9)
Sacramento, California (10)

Here are the least competitive or most accessible housing markets in the U.S.:

Youngstown, Ohio (100)
McAllen, Texas (99)
Scranton, Pennsylvania (98)
El Paso, Texas (97)
Dayton, Ohio (96)
Augusta, Georgia (95)
Birmingham, Alabama (94)
Winston-Salem, North Carolina (93)
Little Rock, Arkansas (92)
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (91)

Image via Shutterstock