In a housing market where millenials can barely qualify for a mortgage, finding a place to call home in the U.S.'s most popular markets is tough. As such, a new list created by Realtor.com could well offer some new hope, with a run down of the top ten trendiest, but still affordable, housing markets offering new options for those who're desperately searching for a home in a hospitable, up and coming hipster city.
As Yuqing Pan of realtor.com states:
“Our data team mixed up a large batch of kale smoothies and set out to find the next hipster meccas sprouting up across the U.S. We took a deep dive into the 500 largest cities in the country in search of those that combine a fun, young, culture-rich urban experience with affordability for the long haul.”
Among the criteria for realtor.com's list were the number of “foodie hot spots”. Pan also took into consideration other important factors for younger people, such as the number of bike shops and yoga studios. He also looked at cities that were seeing growth in the population of 25 to 34 year olds, and also cities that were seeing an increase in the number of people searching for a home on realtor.com.
All of the cities that met Pan's criteria were then checked for housing affordability, allowing realtor.com to come up with this top ten list of the most affordable trendy cities in the U.S.:
10. Charleston, South Carolina, Median home price: $325, 200
9. New Orleans, Louisiana: Median home price: $245,000
8. St. Louis, Missouri: Median home price: $145,000
7. Cincinnati, Ohio: Median home price: $138,000
6. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Median home price: $349,450
5. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Median home price: $251,000
4. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Median home price: $149,900
3. Asheville, North Carolina: Median home price: $350,000
2. Richmond, Virginia: Median home price: $170,000
1. Salt Lake City, Utah: Median home price: $355,000