Boston has the healthiest housing market across 25 U.S. cities, according to a report by WalletHub.
The financial site, WalletHub, compared the real estate markets in 25 of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation and used 10 key metrics in their study. A few of the metrics that were used included equity levels, mortgage costs, first-time home buyer assistance, downpayment percentages and access to financing.
The report listed Boston with the healthiest housing market, followed by Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Northern New Jersey and Hartford, Connecticut. Three Florida cities were ranked at the bottom 10, namely Miami-Hialeah, Jacksonville, Orlando and the Tampa-Saint Petersburg-Clearwater metro area. Other cities at the bottom 5 are Tucson, Orlando and Minneapolis-Saint Paul. And coming in at the very last spot is Las Vegas, Nevada.
In terms of equity level, on average, Boston home owners have 43 percent equity in their homes, states Time. This means that the mortgages of these home owners amounted to slightly more than half the value of their house. Boston's equity level came in second on the WalletHub report, just behind New York City's 47 percent. Following Boston are Rochester and Northern New Jersey with equity levels of 38 percent, and Philadelphia and San Antonio at 36 percent.
Time also cited Boston having the second lowest "underwater mortgage" or situations wherein the home owners owes the bank more than the value of the house. Rochester had the lowest pool of underwater mortgages at 6.13 percent, followed by Boston's 6.67 percent. Other cities with low percentages are Austin, Oklahoma City and San Antonio, with 7.29 percent, 7.32 and 9.08, respectively.
Although Boston was identified as having the healthiest housing market in the nation, the city also has one of the highest downpayment percentage at 23.12 percent, according to the WalletHub report. Other cities with high downpayment percentages are Philadelphia (22.18 percent), Harford (22.61 percent), Northern New Jersey (23.61 percent) and New York City (23.98 percent).
Meanwhile, Las Vegas, which ranked last on the list of WalletHub's healthy housing markets, also posted the lowest equity level (12 percent) and the highest percentage of underwater mortgage (38.58 percent).
