{"id":405298,"date":"2026-07-20T14:50:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/405298\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T14:50:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:50:30","slug":"mapped-southern-californias-best-cities-for-1st-time-homebuyers-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/405298\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapped: Southern California\u2019s best cities for 1st-time homebuyers \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Need another house-hunting reality check, first-timers?<\/p>\n

Southern California has 37 cities with some of the worst odds of first-timers joining the homeownership crowd.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what my trusty spreadsheet <\/a>found when reviewing a WalletHub study of the best spots for first-time homebuyers in 300 cities nationwide \u2013 including 52 from seven Southern California counties. The financial website weighed affordability, of course, against a city\u2019s real estate market strength and quality of life.<\/p>\n

While these scorecards are often curious concoctions of science and art, there\u2019s usually truth in teh rankings. Such as\u00a0Southern California with one city in the top 100 \u2013 Lancaster at No. 80 \u2013 and 37 in the bottom 100.<\/p>\n

Yet, if you can get past the region\u2019s overall unnerving share of unaffordable homes, the study confirms well-known house-hunting wisdom: The dream of Southern California homeownership is most likely found inland.<\/p>\n

Why did the High Desert\u2019s Lancaster offer the best chance for first-time success, by this math?<\/p>\n

Well, among the 52 local cities, it had the third-best score for affordability, ranked second for real estate market strength. The cost, so to speak, was for livability: Lancaster ranked a subpar 29th.<\/p>\n

\"FishermenFishermen wait for a bite at the lake in Apollo Park on Nov. 8, 2025 in Lancaster CA. (Photo by John McCoy, Contributing Photographer)<\/p>\n

The other top five local cities for first-timers are also far from the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

\u2013 No. 2 Murrieta: seventh for affordability, No. 7 for market, No. 1 for livability and No. 109 U.S. rank.<\/p>\n

\u2013 No. 3 Victorville: Tops for affordability, No. 5 for market, No. 32 for livability and No. 114 U.S. rank.<\/p>\n

\u2013 No. 4 Temecula: Tenth for affordability, No. 3 for market, No. 4 for livability and No. 115 U.S. rank.<\/p>\n

\u2013 No. 5 Palmdale: Eighth for affordability, No. 4 for market, No. 15 for livability and No. 137 U.S. rank.<\/p>\n

The same math shows Santa Monica as the worst of the 52 local cities for first-timers. It had the region\u2019s worst affordability, ranked No. 47 for market strength and next-to-last for livability.<\/p>\n

Oh, and Santa Monica was the second-worst city for first-timers nationally.\u00a0The other members of Southern California\u2019s bottom five:<\/p>\n

\u2013 No. 51 Santa Barbara: 51st for affordability, No. 44 for market, No. 23 for livability. Third-worst nationally.<\/p>\n

Follow local housing with our free \u201cHome Stretch\u201d email newsletter. SIGN UP HERE!<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2013 No. 50 Costa Mesa: 50th for affordability, No. 27 for market, No. 47 for livability. Seventh-worst nationally.<\/p>\n

\u2013 No. 49 Los Angeles: 48th for affordability, No. 42 for market, No. 49 for livability. Eighth-worst nationally.<\/p>\n

\u2013 No. 48 Glendale: 49th for affordability, No. 41 for market, No. 22 for livability. Tenth-worst nationally.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Try Jonathan Lansner\u2019s Substack collection of economic trends. CLICK HERE<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Need another house-hunting reality check, first-timers? Southern California has 37 cities with some of the worst odds of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,7,100,388,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-405298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-business","tag-california","tag-news","tag-real-estate","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}