The housing market has been twisting and contorting all year. Interest rates are high, and many markets are unaffordable. According to reatlor.com, however, there is one city in Georgia that has been ranked among the top five best cities to buy a house right now. For hopeful Lawrenceville homeowners, it’s a silver lining in a market of dark clouds.
To come up with the “buyer’s bonanza” ranking, realtor.com analyzed housing data from the largest 250 U.S. cities. Local median incomes were compared to prices per square foot to ensure affordability in each city. Total days on the market, percentage of sellers cutting prices and total number of homes for sale relative to each city’s total homes were all considered to finalize each city’s ranking. Realtor.com then reduced their list to just one city per state to ensure geographic diversity.
“For some of these markets, it’s a return to balance especially where you saw lots of dramatic demand increases during the past couple of years,” George Ratiu, manager of economic research for realtor.com, told the website.
Ranking in the number four spot, Lawrenceville is considered Georgia’s best city for home buyers right now. Hopeful homeowners in the area can anticipate spending $350,000 for a 3,000 square foot brick fixer upper.
Realtor.com reported that the town made it onto the list due to the area’s relatively high local wages and relatively low home prices per square foot. A staggering 42% of homes in Lawrenceville have also recently had their prices reduced.
Midland, Texas took the top spot on the list, where real estate is 25% below the national average and median household income is 45% above the U.S. average.
“There’s definitely more of an attitude for buyers, like, ‘Hey, we have some time, we can think about it, we can absorb what we’re seeing, we can pray over it,’” local broker associate Brian Sales, with The Sales Team Realtors, told realtor.com. “Whereas a year ago, if you took the time to say a prayer over it, you might just lose it.”
For a full list of the website’s top 10 cities to buy homes right now, check out the graph below.
| Ranking | City |
|---|---|
| 1. | Midland, Texas |
| 2. | Cedar Rapids, Indiana |
| 3. | Detroit, Michigan |
| 4. | Lawrenceville, Georgia |
| 5. | Jacksonville, Florida |
| 6. | Boise, Idaho |
| 7. | Reno, Nevada |
| 8. | Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
| 9. | Myrtle Beach, South Carolina |
| 10. | Scottsdale, Arizona |
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