With mortgage rates and housing prices stubbornlyPotential buyers are looking for ways to save wherever they can.
The median selling price for a house in the first quarter of 2025 was more than $ 400,000, according to to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Mortgage rates, on the other hand, continue to hover about 7% – against a lower record of 2.65% in January 2021. Moody’s Dision briefly downgrad Pushed prices Above the 7% earlier threshold this month.
Although house buyers cannot control the median prices of houses and mortgage rates, their choice of city or city to buy can play a decisive role in the quantity they end up spending on a property. Some places will offer more affordable lists and a wider range of options to choose – giving buyers something to think when they decide where to make their next investment.
A recent study De Smartasset classifies the best cities for new buyers – offering a sort of cheat sheet for those looking for a new house. The financial technology company has examined 180 American cities and has ranked its attraction for new buyers according to affordability, stocks of available housing, demand and the number of prices of houses that should change in the region over the next year.
Here is a ventilation of cities that will offer buyers for the first time the best blow for their money.
Best place to buy overall
McAllen, Texas, located on the southern state of the state, won Place N ° 1 on the Smartasset list. A major sales argument for the border city is that housing prices should change only 0.4% compared to next year, which means that buyers can be assured that the market will not fluctuate too wildly when they are looking for the right house.
The median selling price for houses in McAllen – $ 204,499 – is about four times more than median local income, which gives buyers a more moderate leeway in terms of affordability.
Best accessibility
By examining only the affordability – the median selling price of a house compared to the median local income – Midwest metropolitan areas reign. The cities of Illinois Peoria and Decatur are at the top of the affordability, according to Smartasset. The other parameters of the house may want to keep an eye on Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Davenport, Iowa; Muncie, Indiana; Springfield, Illinois; and St. Joseph, Missouri, who are among the cheapest metropolitan areas, according to the study.
While the cities of the Midwest have ranked higher in the affordability than the others, only Lawton, in Oklahoma, where houses have a median selling price of $ 150,007, has become in all 10 best cities in Smartasset for buyers for the first time.
Best place for widen stocks
One of the biggest problems that afflict the housing market is the limited offer of houses for sale during studies to show That the inventory of the available properties increases in many markets, certain metropolitric areas always suffer from shortageswhich increases the competition and prices of house buyers.
If you are looking for a more robust inventory, you may want to consider heading south. Cape Coral, in Florida, offers the largest number of houses for sale per capita, according to Smartasset, followed by Port St. Lucie, in Florida.