Realtor.com has named the top 10 markets for first-time home buyers for the upcoming home buying season. In this report, realtor.com examined five key factors, including market popularity, prices, inventory, time on market and employment rates.
Markets that made the 2014 list, by rank, include the following: Pittsburgh; Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.; Philadelphia; Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas; Orlando, Fla.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Dallas; Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.; and Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz.
Pittsburgh took the lead, with a $135,000 median listing price and a median age of inventory of 138, while Phoenix-Mesa ended out the top 10, with a $244,900 median listing price and a median age of inventory of 59.
Phoenix-Mesa maintained the highest total number of listings (23,654), and Fort Worth-Arlington had the fewest (8,433). Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill gave the lowest unemployment rate at 4.90%, with Philadelphia giving the highest rate, at 6.40%.
‘As we head into home buying season, these markets show favorable conditions for first-time buyers, which is encouraging because these buyers are crucial to the housing market,’ remarks Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Move Inc., operator of realtor.com.
‘First-time buyers have a widespread impact on the local housing markets. In transitioning from renters to owners, new buyers pay property taxes and other fees and taxes associated with homeownership that benefit local schools and services," he adds.
Realtor.com examined housing indicators including search rank, median list price, year-over-year change in inventory, median age of inventory and unemployment rates across 146 markets. It evaluated the metrics against the needs and desires of the typical first-time home buyer. All metrics considered were pulled directly from realtor.com February 2014 data and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.