Edhat Staff
By edhat staff
According to a new report by WalletHub, Santa Barbara has been ranked as the third worst city for first-time home buyers.
In 2018, approximately 39% of all U.S. single-family home purchases were made by first-time buyers. July is also rated as one of the top months for home sales.
To determine the most favorable housing markets for first-time buyers, WalletHub took the pulse of real estate in 300 cities of varying sizes using 27 key metrics. The data set ranges from housing affordability to real-estate tax rate to property-crime rate.
According to the overall rankings Tampa, FL came in at #1; Overland Park, KS at #2; Thornton, CO at #3; Grand Rapids, MI at #4; and Boise, ID at #5. The highest rated California city on the overall list is Roseville that came in at #28 followed by Visalia at #89.
Santa Barbara was ranked at the bottom, the third worst at #298 overall and #135 among small cities. Santa Barbra was also listed under the highest cost of living joined by San Francisco, New York, and Honolulu.
Below is the specific breakdown:
Buying a First Home in Santa Barbara (1=Best; 150=Avg.):
- 257th – Housing Affordability
- 276th – Cost of Living
- 278th – Rent-to-Price Ratio
- 158th – Median Home-Price Appreciation
- 43rd – Foreclosure Rate
- 127th – Property-Crime Rate
Comparitavely, Santa Maria ranks #177 overall while Ventura ranks #240 and Oxnard ranks #231.
Sick, stay out we are full.
You’d best hurry lest you miss the next 3 out of 4 months of 90 degrees, 85% humidity, thunderstorms, hurricanes and mosquitoes. Not to forget 50 less days of sun…..enjoy.
Whinny “millennials” are in the same position that any others before them- They just don’t want to sacrifice to get what they WANT and want it NOW… Not all, mind you, but most are entitled due to their parents being able to “give them” what their parents couldn’t or DIDN’T… I will use an “entitlement” millennial I know personally as an example; Born and raised in SB- Graduated College and HAD to continue until a Master’s Degree was obtained… Feels that she should be able to live and work in SB because of her “education”. Refuses to consider a job offer in the Santa Maria Valley, Paso Robles or anywhere not on or near “the beach”… Lives with parents until she can find The Job and save enough to move out. In contrast, I and all my friends couldn’t wait to move out @18- Some went to Jr. College and started working on their careers by age 21, others worked through the university experience and started in the lowest positions in their career choice EVEN though they had a BS/BA and most left the area to get those jobs…. The funnest (ironic) thing is, the most successful friend went on to learn the welding / building trade, ended up owning his own business and it’s taken off… Personally, I lived an hour away from SB, bought homes that needed tons of work and kept buying, fixing, and selling 3 homes until I could afford a crumby 780 sq ft Westside home…
But hey, Santa Barbara’s Housing Authority has made so virtually ANYONE can afford 20% of the residential housing units in the City… By 2025, it will probably be 25%!
Typo: SB/Goleta HAS been a horrible place for first time buyers since at least the early 70’s.
@10:10AM… I was a first time buyer in ’93 (Samarkand) and have no complaints. I guess it all comes down to expectations.
@11:39 Sure, if you studied a subject in low demand, took on $50k in debt to get your degree, and make $40-50k a year in a job with very slow advancement you may never be able to purchase a home in SB. Those millennial with great skills, good jobs, and low debt will do just fine. Sam as people have done locally for many decades. If you’re a millennial with high debt you should consider Akron, Ohio. It is a nice place and the cost of living appears great compared to SB.
That was a pre foreclosure fixer upper where most the others are only worth low $800 K. So only a bargain if you have the time and money to fix it up.
Or become a politician or stump-jumper-style preacher or commentator: They seem to do very well regardless of the economic climate.
It makes me sad that people are being encouraged to make their decisions about what to study and what to do with their lives based solely on economics. There are so many really satisfying and beneficial ways to make a living that don’t pay as well but add a lot more value to the whole community in intangible ways than being an accountant or developing a new app that makes some already simple task easier at the same time it collects data on your every move. I wish the people in service jobs and helping professions and the arts, teachers and nurses and librarians and physical therapists and musicians and craftspeople and so many other honorable careers that make our world easier to live in didn’t have to worry so much about where they can afford to live, when their rent is going to become unsustainable. It’s almost as if people are arguing that it’s more virtuous to have a high salary, therefore you deserve to own a house. Okay, end of rant.
Regarding the “debt trap” … the rise/fall/rise of for-profit colleges, commercialization of educational loans, and the push to cut state funding for higher education across the country … all backed by factions on the political right (e.g. Betsy DeVos) are a large part of the problem.
No surprise here. It makes me sick.
If you bought a house in SB prior to late 90’s then you have been the recipient of the shift in monetary policy and a large population boom that has driven the US economy for the last 30+ years. The shift in policy led to cheap and easy loans, which led to a giant increase in property values. Debt, not hard assets or productivity is our economic driver. Paired with an influx of 15million people into CA over the last 40 years and you have the hockey stick rise in home valuations that has gifted many of the Boomer generation untold advantages and wealth. But the real stick is what these people did with their newfound fortunes. They didnt spread the wealth, or pay it forward… Nope. They spent it all on themselves and left nothing but trillions in debt for their grandchildren. A generation that was gifted the greatest economy in history sucked up all the wealth while they indebted their great, great grandkids with more debt than has been seen in all of human history. All while paying nothing forward for future generations… The Boomers are called the Locust Generation for this very reason. But if you think its expensive now, just wait. One only needs to look towards SF, LA, London, Hong Kong or Moscow to see how high real estate prices can and will climb. The answer is to either make more money, or live somewhere appropriate for your income… The Boomer’s have assured that as long as they are alive, they will do everything in their power to keep their wealth and advantages. Welcome to the Boomer’s version of America! Aint it grand?
50. If you have no mortgage than you’re neither well advised, nor do you resemble the norm… The debt I reference is society’s debt, not personal. Reading these comments it seems that many people here cannot separate their own experiences and personal antidotes from the realities that face the whole or the facts and figures… Regardless, there are so many nice places to live in the USA that do not require 200k down payments and 200k a year in income. Life is so much better for people in these places because they are free from the burden of justifying their economic struggles with the lie that “its better here”…. You to can have peace, but you’ll have to give up the false premise that SB is ‘paradise’ and that its worth sacrificing your time and well being for…