July is reportedly one of the top months for home sales. And with nearly 40 percent of 2018’s single-family home purchases made by first time home buyers, WalletHub, the personal finance website, released it’s 2019 report on the Best and Worst Cities for first time homebuyers. Grand Rapids ranks as one of the best.
Buying a home for the first time is an exciting and important milestone for many Americans. So much so, those purchases made up a sizeable chunk of the market. Here’s WalletHub Analyst Jill Gonzalez on why they chose to do this study.
“About 40-percent of all single-family purchases were made by first time home buyers just last year alone, that’s why we wanted to dive deep and take a closer look at that, plus it’s also a good time to do that before the school season picks back up.”
And as it turns out, Grand Rapids ranks as the 4th best place for those first-time buyers.
“We looked at 300 cities of various sizes. Cost of living to real estate taxes and property crime. And Grand Rapids did pretty well.”
In all, 27 key metrics were used to determine the most favorable housing markets.
“Right now Grand Rapids has the 5th highest median home price appreciation. So out of 300 cities that's quite impressive and its real estate market has an attractive rent to price ratio, which as a buyer is something you're looking at, a low foreclosure rate which is good news and a lot of mortgage lenders per capita so hopefully, finding your home is easier as well.”
Gonzalez says you can find the full report at WalletHub.com. Just search for 2019’s best and worst cities for first time home buyers.
