By Suzanne Woolley
Five of the six top best places to buy a home in the U.S. are in Texas, according to a new ranking.
The city of Frisco, part of the fast-growing Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, tops the list recently released by personal-finance website WalletHub. Austin takes second, while three more Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs — McKinney, Denton and Allen — hold down the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 spots. (Gilbert, Arizona, in the Phoenix metro area, is third.)
The ranking measures cities on two scores: the local real estate market, which includes data such as median home-price appreciation, along with affordability and the economic environment, which includes job growth and other factors. Frisco leads on both measures, while Austin ranks 56th of the total 300 cities when it comes to affordability and economic environment.
“The low foreclosure rate, the large share of newer homes and the intense building-permit activity in these cities were some of the factors that contributed,” WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez said. “These cities all have high population and job-growth rates, as well as low unemployment.”
California and Texas, two of the largest U.S. states, are well-represented. More than 80 of the ranked cities are in the Golden State, with Roseville — in the Sacramento metro area — at No. 9. Texas has 21 cities on the list, while Florida has 17, including Orlando (No. 44), Tampa (No. 57) and Port St. Lucie (No. 66).
Relatively few places in the Northeast made the cut. Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the highest ranked city in that region at No. 78, while Jersey City, New Jersey, came in 165th. New York’s top-ranked home-buying market was Buffalo, at No. 180. New York City came in at No. 282.
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