These 8 CA Cities Among The Worst For First-Time Homebuyers: Ranking

CALIFORNIA — Eight of America’s 10 worst cities for first-time homebuyers are in California, according to a recent analysis from WalletHub.

The personal finance website compared 300 cities across 22 indicators of market attractiveness, quality of life and affordability to determine the best and worst places for first-time buyers to invest.

Not a single California city cracked the 10 best places to buy, which saw Palm Bay, Boise and Tampa rank first, second and third, respectively.

The Golden State did take eight of the bottom 10 slots, however, with the ranking as follows:

300. Berkeley;
299. Santa Monica;
298. Oakland;
297. San Francisco;
296. Santa Barbara;
295. Los Angeles;
294. Costa Mesa;
293. Anchorage (Alaska);
292. New Orleans (Louisiana);
291. San Mateo.

Affordability, in particular, was an issue for California, according to WalletHub. The bottom five cities in the website's more specific rankings for affordable housing and rent-to-price ratio were all in California. Additionally, four of the five worst-ranking cities for cost of living and home energy cost were in California, with Honolulu being the only non-Golden State city among the bottom five in both categories.

“Buying a home for the first time is a very stressful and difficult process, especially when housing prices are through the roof and interest rates have risen sharply in the past few years,” according to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo.

“The best cities for first-time home buyers not only are affordable both in terms of buying a house and living there afterward, but they also have a lot of housing choices as well as low crime rates and good schools.”

Homeownership is becoming increasingly rare for prospective first-time buyers, according to WalletHub.

“In 2024, a historic low of 24% of home purchases were made by first-time buyers,” the website reported, “down from 32% the previous year.”

View the full ranking from WalletHub.