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In the COVID-fueled real estate boom, home prices continue hitting new highs. Soaring values are a windfall for homeowners but a headache for first-time homebuyers, who can be forgiven for feeling as though homeownership moves further out of reach by the week.
For frustrated home shoppers, moving to a cheaper housing market offers one solution to the affordability conundrum. Some metropolitan areas offer an enticing combination of affordable real estate, a robust job market and high marks for safety, public health and cultural amenities.
The 2022 Bankrate Best Metros for First-Time Homebuyers study crunched 11 data points for the nation’s 50 largest metro areas. We found that Pittsburgh ranks as the most attractive place for first-time buyers, followed by other inland cities that offer a combination of affordable homes, strong local economies and housing markets that aren’t too frothy.
At the opposite end of the scale, the least attractive region is the Los Angeles metro area. Eye-watering prices in California overall give first-time buyers pause: Golden State metro areas accounted for three of the bottom five on our list, and five of the bottom 10. No California metro area ranked higher than 39th.
Bankrate ranked metro areas across five broad categories: housing prices in relation to local wages, the tightness of the local housing market, crime rates, the employment picture and health and wellness. Based on that scoring, the top areas are:
The median home price in the Pittsburgh area in the first quarter of 2022 was just $169,000, according to ATTOM Data Solutions. That was the lowest among the 50 largest metro areas — and a fraction of the median prices of $1.4 million in Silicon Valley, $1.1 million in San Francisco and $860,000 in Los Angeles.
Some Californians are taking note of the price gap and shopping for homes in the Pittsburgh metro area, says Jim Jarrett, president of the Realtors Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh and an associate broker at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services The Preferred Realty.
“I’ve been showing $750,000, $800,000 homes to people from California,” Jarrett says. “They’re like, ‘This would be $3.5 million where we come from.’”
Jarrett’s own son moved back to Pittsburgh last year, relocating from Manhattan. His son marvels that his combined payments on a roomy house and a new car amount to less than what he was paying to rent a one-bedroom place in New York City.
“The cost of living here has always been very attractive,” Jarrett says.
It’s not as if Pittsburgh is a backwater, either. The city boasts large universities, museums and professional sports teams. With a population of 2.3 million, the metro area is the nation’s 26th largest. Incomes also are in the middle of the pack — the median income for households headed by 25- to 44-year-olds is nearly $76,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s plenty to afford a home. (Cleveland and Detroit have similar home prices, but in contrast to Pittsburgh, typical residents in prime homebuying years there make less than $70,000 a year.)
Pittsburgh-area native Dan Hill bought his first home, a four-bedroom house, last year. He paid just $185,000, but it’s hardly a fixer-upper. Hill says his place boasts a new kitchen, a roof of recent vintage and a freshly replaced heating and air conditioning system.
Hill works in information security, a position he says affords him the best of both worlds: He can stay in his reasonably priced hometown while collecting a higher-than-average paycheck.
“I can live in a really affordable area but get paid on a national salary scale,” he says.
At the bottom of the ranking are a group of five metro areas with steep home prices and tight housing markets:
The 2022 Bankrate Best Metros for First-Time Homebuyers study was compiled using data from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Labor Department and the FBI. A breakdown of each category:
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