{"id":232043,"date":"2026-04-02T16:28:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/232043\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T16:28:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:28:06","slug":"houston-is-one-of-the-best-markets-for-first-time-homebuyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/232043\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston is one of the best markets for first-time homebuyers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Houston is the No. 5 market in the United States for first-time homebuyers this spring, according to a new <a href=\"https:\/\/zillow.mediaroom.com\/2026-04-02-Zillow-names-Jacksonville-the-best-market-for-first-time-buyers-this-spring\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Zillow<\/a> analysis.<\/p>\n<p>The listing platform ranked the 50 largest U.S. metros by metrics including rental affordability, for-sale inventory and demographics to determine the best areas to break into the housing market.<\/p>\n<p>In Houston, renters spend a median 22.7% of their income on housing \u2014 anything less than 30% is considered affordable \u2014 allowing flexibility to <a href=\"https:\/\/houstonagentmagazine.com\/2023\/07\/11\/8-years-to-save-for-a-down-payment-in-houston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">save for a down payment<\/a>. In the least accessible first-time markets, like New York, renters spend up to 37.1% of their income.<\/p>\n<p>The city also boasts 3.1 affordable home listings per 100 renter households, with 40.2% of all listings affordable to median-income households.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the city has an above-average population of residents aged 29 to 43 \u2014 a prime homebuying cohort, Zillow said, which is an important factor for young homebuyers looking to live in a community of their peers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst-time buyers are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d Zillow <a href=\"https:\/\/houstonagentmagazine.com\/2025\/04\/02\/off-mls-listing-leads-to-lower-selling-prices-especially-in-communities-of-color\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Senior Economist Orphe Divounguy<\/a> said in a news release. \u201cAffordability is still a challenge, but rising incomes, stabilizing prices and improving inventory are creating real opportunities in parts of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Divounguy added that the top markets are less competitive, offering a \u201cclearer path to homeownership\u201d for first-timers.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the full top 10:<\/p>\n<p>1. Jacksonville, Florida<br \/>2. Birmingham, Alabama<br \/>3. San Antonio<br \/>4. <a href=\"https:\/\/atlantaagentmagazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Atlanta<\/a><br \/>5. Houston<br \/>6. St. Louis<br \/>7. Detroit<br \/>8. Raleigh, North Carolina<br \/>9. Baltimore<br \/>10. Louisville, Kentucky<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston is the No. 5 market in the United States for first-time homebuyers this spring, according to a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[89791,89792,56,58,57,50989,89793,11644],"class_list":{"0":"post-232043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-first-time-buyers","9":"tag-first-time-homebuyers","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-headlines","12":"tag-houston-news","13":"tag-houston-real-estate","14":"tag-orphe-divounguy","15":"tag-zillow"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}