For young Americans, purchasing their first home is a significant event with many different connotations. It entails going it alone, investing in your financial future, and locating a place where your family will flourish. It also entails joining a local community, and selecting that community is crucial. Purchasing a home is a costly and challenging process that you will probably only undertake a few times. However, your initial experience can position you for future success. Thus, deciding where to purchase your first home is a crucial first step in accumulating wealth and realizing your ideal way of life.
Not everyone wants to buy a home, and the current trends of high mortgage rates and home prices make it particularly difficult to finance a home. We believe that young Americans still aspire to homeownership, and this research attempts to assist them in doing so, despite the fact that renting a home is becoming more affordable and first-time homebuyers are getting older and less common.
In order to assist young Americans looking for a place to settle down, we selected the top ten markets for first-time homebuyers. This analysis’s guiding concepts are affordability, availability, and amenities; it also takes into account the local housing market’s strength and the local economy.
Realtor.com selected the top 10 Census-Designated Places with at least 500 active for-sale listings during the previous 12 months out of 10,067 locations inside the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas. The following elements make up the scores:
- Affordability: (25% weight) Ratio of the median listing price in the place to the median income of 25- to 34-year-olds in the place to represent affordability.
- Local amenities: (25% weight) Aggregate location score of the place, made up of scores provided by Local Logic that reflect the availability of shopping, day care, restaurants, grocery stores, and nightlife in each place.
- Housing availability: (10% weight) The number of for-sale listings in the place per 1,000 households to represent the availability of homes.
- Young peers: (10% weight) The percentage of households in the place where the householder is between the ages of 25 and 34, as a measure of the young community in the place.
- Commute quality: (10% weight) The average length of commutes to work among households in the place.
- Economic health: (10% weight) The forecasted 2025 unemployment rate in the metropolitan area that each place is located in, as an indicator of the economic strength of the area.
- Housing outlook: (10% weight) The combined forecasts of sales growth and median listing price growth of the metropolitan area for 2025 as published in our annual forecast, to reflect the potential for housing appreciation.
Based on these criteria, the top markets for first-time homebuyers in 2026 are the following.
| Place Name | Region | 2026 Forecasted 25- to 34-Year-Old Homeowner Share of Households | 12 Months Ending November 2025 Inventory per 1,000 Household | 12 Months Ending November 2025 Median Listing Price | 12 Months Ending November 2025 Price to Income Ratio | 2026 Forecasted Average Travel Time to Work (Minutes) | 2025 First-Time Homebuyer Location Score (out of 10) | |
| 1 | Rochester, NY | Northeast | 21.3% | 23.0 | $139,900 | 2.9 | 21 | 9.3 |
| 2 | Harrisburg, PA | Northeast | 19.9% | 37.9 | $151,999 | 3.0 | 23 | 9.3 |
| 3 | Granite City, IL | Midwest | 13.0% | 47.8 | $119,000 | 1.9 | 25 | 7.1 |
| 4 | Birmingham, AL | South | 18.9% | 43.5 | $148,950 | 3.1 | 24 | 6.8 |
| 5 | North Little Rock, AR | South | 17.4% | 39.2 | $170,000 | 3.2 | 23 | 6.7 |
| 6 | Syracuse, NY | Northeast | 20.4% | 21.0 | $169,900 | 3.3 | 20 | 8.8 |
| 7 | Baltimore | South | 19.1% | 52.6 | $223,900 | 3.6 | 31 | 9.0 |
| 8 | St. Louis Park, MN | Midwest | 25.2% | 42.4 | $375,000 | 3.8 | 22 | 7.7 |
| 9 | Pittsburgh | Northeast | 23.5% | 33.7 | $249,000 | 3.5 | 25 | 9.1 |
| 10 | Garfield Heights, Ohio | Midwest | 12.4% | 50.2 | $140,000 | 2.6 | 24 | 8.0 |
The fact that four of these markets were included in the 2025 Best Markets for First-Time Homebuyers list last year shows how these markets continue to offer benefits to first-timers. Baltimore climbed from ninth to seventh, North Little Rock went from seventh to sixth this year, and Rochester and Harrisburg switched first and second. Due mainly to lower price and house sale forecasts for respective metro areas, the three Florida markets that were highlighted last year dropped out of the top 10 for 2026.
The four markets that consistently rank in the top 10 are a testament to the appealing features of those cities as well as the robustness of the property and economic markets in the surrounding metropolitan areas.
It’s a frequent misconception that first-time buyers need to look in the suburbs and surrounding areas of a city in order to find an affordable house. This is refuted by our ranking of the top markets, where the main city proper of its metro is represented by six of the ten highlighted locations. The availability of shopping, daycare, dining options, grocery stores, and nightlife—all of which are more concentrated in the flagship cities of most metro areas than in the suburban areas—is taken into consideration in our rankings. Another benefit of purchasing near the core city, where first-time homeowners are most likely to work, is shorter travel times.
The median listing price in each of these ten highlighted markets is lower than both the national median and the metropolitan area median. This includes Granite City, which is about 60% less expensive than the whole St. Louis metro region, and Pittsburgh proper, whose median price is only $1,000 less than the median for the Pittsburgh metro.
The only metro area with a median listing price significantly higher than the national median is the Minneapolis metro, which is home to our featured market, St. Louis Park. However, St. Louis Park’s prices are roughly 10% lower than those of the whole Minneapolis metro. Overall, these are reasonably priced areas of reasonably priced metro areas where younger residents may afford to buy their first homes due to their relatively high incomes.
According to Realtor.com, a home is generally considered reasonable for a buyer if the monthly mortgage payment is 30% or less of their monthly income. Assuming a 6.25% mortgage rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a 10% down payment, this represents the portion of income a buyer would spend on a home with a median listing price at the median prices and median incomes for 25–34-year-olds in these highlighted cities.
| Place Name | Median Listing Price | Median Income for 25- to 34-Year-Olds | Share of Income Spent on Mortgage Payment |
| Rochester, NY | $139,900 | $48,617 | 19.1% |
| Harrisburg, PA | $151,999 | $51,285 | 19.7% |
| Granite City, IL | $119,000 | $62,621 | 12.6% |
| Birmingham, AL | $148,950 | $47,647 | 20.8% |
| North Little Rock, AR | $170,000 | $53,258 | 21.2% |
| Syracuse, NY | $169,900 | $51,436 | 22.0% |
| Baltimore | $223,900 | $62,982 | 23.6% |
| St. Louis Park, MN | $375,000 | $98,036 | 25.4% |
| Pittsburgh | $249,000 | $70,226 | 23.6% |
| Garfield Heights, Ohio | $140,000 | $54,007 | 17.2% |
According to the 30% rule, the median-earning young professional in each of the highlighted markets may afford the median-priced home. This varies from the incredibly cheap Granite City, where a mortgage payment only accounts for 12.6% of median income, to St. Louis Park, where greater mortgage payments consume 25.4% of monthly income despite the group’s highest salaries. Only 35.2% of the locations taken into consideration for our rankings have a price and income mix that results in a mortgage payment that satisfies the 30% guideline, despite the fact that this list makes it appear commonplace.
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