Pittsburgh Named Best City for First-Time Buyers, Texas May Be Best State

Pittsburgh, home of the Penguins and Steelers, was named the best city for first-time homebuyers this year, but Texas may be the best state for these buyers with eight of the top 25 cities.

One of the factors putting Pittsburgh over the edge was its homes' ability to retain value. The Steel City had no quarters of negative home value growth between 2012 and 2017, tied for first in the ranking. The average price per square foot of a Pittsburgh home was $91, one of the lowest in SmartAsset's study. Houston was the highest-ranked city from Texas, number four, with the most HUD-approved lenders. San Antonio and Dallas were the other two Texas cities in the top 10; neighboring Oklahoma also had two of the 10 best cities.

In total, SmartAsset compared data for seven factors to rank the best places for first-time homebuyers. Specifically, SmartAsset looked at the number of HUD-approved lenders, loan funding ratio, average price per square foot, affordability ratio, stability score, price variance and the number of negative quarters from the first quarter of 2012 to the fourth quarter of 2017. 

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