Need another house-hunting reality check, first-timers?
Southern California has 37 cities with some of the worst odds of first-timers joining the homeownership crowd.
That’s what my trusty spreadsheet found when reviewing a WalletHub study of the best spots for first-time homebuyers in 300 cities nationwide – including 52 from seven Southern California counties. The financial website weighed affordability, of course, against a city’s real estate market strength and quality of life.
While these scorecards are often curious concoctions of science and art, there’s usually truth in teh rankings. Such as Southern California with one city in the top 100 – Lancaster at No. 80 – and 37 in the bottom 100.
Yet, if you can get past the region’s overall unnerving share of unaffordable homes, the study confirms well-known house-hunting wisdom: The dream of Southern California homeownership is most likely found inland.
Why did the High Desert’s Lancaster offer the best chance for first-time success, by this math?
Well, among the 52 local cities, it had the third-best score for affordability, ranked second for real estate market strength. The cost, so to speak, was for livability: Lancaster ranked a subpar 29th.
The other top five local cities for first-timers are also far from the Pacific Ocean.
– No. 2 Murrieta: seventh for affordability, No. 7 for market, No. 1 for livability and No. 109 U.S. rank.
– No. 3 Victorville: Tops for affordability, No. 5 for market, No. 32 for livability and No. 114 U.S. rank.
– No. 4 Temecula: Tenth for affordability, No. 3 for market, No. 4 for livability and No. 115 U.S. rank.
– No. 5 Palmdale: Eighth for affordability, No. 4 for market, No. 15 for livability and No. 137 U.S. rank.
The same math shows Santa Monica as the worst of the 52 local cities for first-timers. It had the region’s worst affordability, ranked No. 47 for market strength and next-to-last for livability.
Oh, and Santa Monica was the second-worst city for first-timers nationally. The other members of Southern California’s bottom five:
– No. 51 Santa Barbara: 51st for affordability, No. 44 for market, No. 23 for livability. Third-worst nationally.
- Follow local housing with our free “Home Stretch” email newsletter. SIGN UP HERE!
– No. 50 Costa Mesa: 50th for affordability, No. 27 for market, No. 47 for livability. Seventh-worst nationally.
– No. 49 Los Angeles: 48th for affordability, No. 42 for market, No. 49 for livability. Eighth-worst nationally.
– No. 48 Glendale: 49th for affordability, No. 41 for market, No. 22 for livability. Tenth-worst nationally.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com
- Try Jonathan Lansner’s Substack collection of economic trends. CLICK HERE!