Location, location, location.
Where you buy your home significantly impacts its value, and American buyers are looking for value anywhere they can get it.
A new report by WalletHub ranked US cities on how affordable they are for homebuyers. The findings offer hope to prospective buyers pessimistic about sky-high mortgage rates and median sales prices.
Unfortunately for New Yorkers, the Empire State offers little refuge.
WalletHub ranked 300 cities across 10 metrics, including home cost, maintenance, tax rates and vacancy rates.
At No. 40, Buffalo was the only New York destination to break into the top 100. Rochester and Albany floundered at 116th and 226th most affordable, respectively, while Yonkers and New York City sank towards the very bottom of the list.
New York City was the only non-Californian locale to rank among WalletHub’s 10 least affordable cities in which to buy a home.
The Rust Belt, however, is ready to welcome sticker-shocked house hunters.
Flint, Michigan; Detroit; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, took the top spots. Flint ranked as the No. 1 most affordable city for home buyers, based on WalletHub’s multi-pronged rating system.
The city boasts a low cost of living and the most affordable home prices relative to residents’ income, according to WalletHub. The city’s median home price per square foot is only $61 — compare that to Manhattan’s approximate $1,500 per square foot.
Flint’s affordability is attributable, in part, to its housing stock’s 21% vacancy rate in wake of the city’s prolonged water crisis, although Flint’s drinking water is now in compliance with federal standards.
In runner-ups Detroit and Pittsburgh, low price per square foot and low price-to-income ratios make it far more cost-effective to buy a home than rent. Affordability in Detroit, in particular, is boosted by a more than 22% vacancy rate, according to WalletHub — a leftover from the city’s 2013 financial crisis.
These Rust Belt cities are a world away from California — California locales occupy eight consecutive spots on the very bottom of WalletHub’s affordability list. From San Francisco, California to Santa Barbara, affordability is hard to come by in the Golden State.
The question of where to buy and where to avoid is more pressing than ever, as a documented lack of affordable housing supply is nudging the American dream increasingly out of reach for the middle class.