Zillow Names St. Louis the Best Market for First-Time Home Buyers in 2024

We're No. 1 for a good reason this time

Apr 5, 2024 at 7:36 am

Fox Park is a St. Louis neighborhood that many first-time home buyers find attractive. FLICKR/PAUL SABLEMAN

[
          {
            "name": "GPT - Leaderboard - Inline - Content",
            "component": "41932919",
            "insertPoint": "5th",
            "startingPoint": "3",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "3",
            "maxInsertions": 100
          }
          
        ]

The results are in — and it turns out there's no better place to be a first-time home buyer this year than in St. Louis.

That's according to real estate marketplace company Zillow, which analyzed cities across the U.S. with eye towards both affordability and camaraderie. It used the following four metrics to assess the conditions facing first-time buyers in 2024:

* Rent affordability: the share of median household income spent on rent
* Available inventory: the share of Zillow listings that the median household can comfortably afford, spending no more than 30 percent of income on the monthly mortgage
* The ratio of affordable for-sale inventory to renter households. Per Zillow, "More inventory per renter household is an indicator of less competition for each listing."
* The share of households age 29-43. The more people in that age group, the better.

By Zillow's metrics, 67 percent of the company's real estate listings in St. Louis are affordable to people with the median salary here. That's significantly higher than Austin (23 percent), San Antonio (33 percent) and Minneapolis (48 percent), which also made the top 10.

At the same time, St. Louis also won high marks for the percentage of home-buying households as a share of the total, with 26 percent of households here age 29 to 43. That's comparable to Minneapolis, Baltimore and Kansas City.

This may be the sales pitch St. Louis needs: Come live among other smart young people — and be able to afford a hell of a great house!

Zillow's top 10 list for 2024 is below.

10 Best Markets for First-Time Home Buyers in 2024
1. St. Louis
2. Detroit
3. Minneapolis
4. Indianapolis
5. Austin
6. Pittsburgh
7. San Antonio
8. Birmingham
9. Kansas City
10. Baltimore

You can read Zillow's complete analysis here. The site says first-time buyers comprised half of all home buyers in 2023.

Slideshow

What Your St. Louis Neighborhood Says About You

Click to View 41 slides

Tags:

About The Author

Sarah Fenske

Sarah Fenske is the executive editor of the RFT and its sister papers. She is the former host of St. Louis on the Air and continues to host its Legal Roundtable, as well participating as an occasional panelist on Nine PBS' Donnybrook. She lives in St. Louis.

Email Sarah Fenske