Best states for first-time home buyers
A weighted composite of price-to-income, property tax, homeownership rate, and 5-year FHFA HPI growth. Higher score means a more favorable mix of the four inputs.
Picking a state to start homeownership in is rarely about a single number. The right place balances four things at once: home prices that are reachable on a typical local salary, property taxes that do not erase the budget you used to qualify for the loan, an existing community of homeowners who keep the local market liquid, and a track record of steady appreciation that protects your equity if life moves you in a few years. This ranking combines all four into a single composite score on a 0 to 1 scale. Price-to-income carries the most weight because it most directly answers whether the median household can afford the median home. Property taxes carry the next biggest weight because they recur every year. Homeownership rate and five-year HPI each contribute smaller weights as context. Read the methodology before treating any single rank as definitive.
Top 20: composite score (0 to 100)
Bars show the composite score on a 0 to 100 scale. Higher means a more favorable mix of the four inputs for a typical first-time buyer.
Top 50 sortable table
Click any column to sort. Click a state name for full housing data.
| # | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indiana | 89.2 | 2.48 | $1,131 | 75.7% | 47.1% |
| 2 | West Virginia | 88.6 | 2.55 | $683 | 77.8% | 37.4% |
| 3 | Arkansas | 88.3 | 2.51 | $680 | 70.7% | 49.0% |
| 4 | Kansas | 88.2 | 2.02 | $1,877 | 73.5% | 45.0% |
| 5 | Oklahoma | 87.9 | 2.34 | $911 | 72.2% | 42.9% |
| 6 | South Carolina | 87.5 | 3.02 | $893 | 72.3% | 58.4% |
| 7 | Alabama | 87.5 | 2.71 | $485 | 72.9% | 44.4% |
| 8 | Michigan | 86.9 | 2.73 | $2,018 | 79.5% | 47.8% |
| 9 | Illinois | 86.9 | 2.12 | $2,720 | 75.4% | 48.5% |
| 10 | Kentucky | 86.7 | 2.60 | $1,050 | 73.1% | 44.6% |
| 11 | Missouri | 86.6 | 2.67 | $1,157 | 73.4% | 47.0% |
| 12 | Nebraska | 86.5 | 2.21 | $1,863 | 73.9% | 42.2% |
| 13 | South Dakota | 85.8 | 2.39 | $1,700 | 71.9% | 46.3% |
| 14 | Iowa | 85.8 | 2.22 | $2,073 | 75.6% | 39.1% |
| 15 | North Dakota | 85.2 | 2.29 | $1,411 | 73.7% | 34.6% |
| 16 | Mississippi | 85.1 | 2.61 | $903 | 71.2% | 41.3% |
| 17 | Ohio | 84.9 | 2.59 | $2,053 | 73.2% | 49.7% |
| 18 | Tennessee | 84.8 | 3.23 | $979 | 73.5% | 51.9% |
| 19 | Georgia | 83.2 | 2.87 | $1,447 | 69.7% | 49.8% |
| 20 | Maine | 82.4 | 3.39 | $2,525 | 75.9% | 60.5% |
| 21 | North Carolina | 82.3 | 3.34 | $1,373 | 71.2% | 54.4% |
| 22 | Wisconsin | 81.5 | 2.94 | $3,022 | 75.5% | 52.4% |
| 23 | New Mexico | 81.5 | 3.21 | $993 | 72.3% | 41.7% |
| 24 | Minnesota | 81.0 | 2.85 | $2,043 | 77.9% | 32.3% |
| 25 | Texas | 80.8 | 2.55 | $2,075 | 72.3% | 35.6% |
| 26 | Pennsylvania | 80.6 | 2.80 | $2,606 | 73.9% | 43.8% |
| 27 | Louisiana | 78.8 | 2.91 | $708 | 71.7% | 22.2% |
| 28 | Florida | 78.5 | 3.75 | $1,757 | 73.5% | 50.7% |
| 29 | Montana | 77.8 | 3.82 | $1,734 | 72.6% | 51.7% |
| 30 | Arizona | 77.2 | 3.64 | $1,295 | 69.7% | 45.3% |
| 31 | Delaware | 76.9 | 3.95 | $1,594 | 73.3% | 48.4% |
| 32 | Virginia | 75.4 | 3.64 | $1,894 | 70.3% | 44.3% |
| 33 | Nevada | 75.4 | 3.75 | $1,388 | 70.9% | 40.3% |
| 34 | Vermont | 75.3 | 3.54 | $4,543 | 76.8% | 59.9% |
| 35 | Wyoming | 74.8 | 4.10 | $1,571 | 73.7% | 43.0% |
| 36 | Utah | 72.8 | 4.47 | $1,677 | 76.4% | 41.3% |
| 37 | Idaho | 72.7 | 4.38 | $1,449 | 74.6% | 39.6% |
| 38 | Alaska | 71.3 | 3.29 | $2,068 | 64.5% | 33.8% |
| 39 | New Hampshire | 69.8 | 3.51 | $5,531 | 73.3% | 57.2% |
| 40 | New York | 69.3 | 3.45 | $4,612 | 69.1% | 50.9% |
| 41 | Maryland | 68.5 | 3.66 | $3,246 | 71.9% | 32.3% |
| 42 | Colorado | 63.5 | 5.10 | $1,450 | 72.0% | 28.7% |
| 43 | Connecticut | 62.9 | 3.73 | $6,350 | 68.4% | 56.1% |
| 44 | Rhode Island | 62.4 | 4.35 | $5,170 | 68.9% | 54.8% |
| 45 | Washington | 60.5 | 4.99 | $2,867 | 70.5% | 34.2% |
| 46 | Oregon | 58.9 | 4.85 | $2,629 | 68.0% | 27.1% |
| 47 | New Jersey | 55.6 | 3.91 | $8,423 | 68.1% | 58.3% |
| 48 | Massachusetts | 48.2 | 5.82 | $4,980 | 66.7% | 41.3% |
| 49 | California | 42.5 | 6.44 | $3,834 | 63.6% | 28.8% |
| 50 | Hawaii | 42.5 | 7.93 | $1,694 | 65.1% | 37.8% |
Methodology
- Inputs: average home value, median household income, average property tax (Census ACS), homeownership rate (Census ACS B25003), and 5-year HPI change (FHFA).
- Each input is normalized to a 0 to 1 scale across the included states using min-max normalization.
- Price-to-income (avg home value / median income) is inverted so that lower ratios score higher. Property tax is inverted for the same reason.
- Weights: price-to-income 40%, property tax 25%, homeownership rate 20%, 5-year HPI 15%.
- This composite is intentionally simple. Reasonable people can weight these inputs differently. We publish the weights so you can re-rank to your taste.
- Composite scores are not personalized advice. Use the rent-vs-buy calculator with your own numbers to make any actual decision.