A new report has named a Cape Cod community one of the top 10 best cities in the nation for first-time homebuyers.
According to a new ConsumerAffairs report, from July 2022 to June 2023, first-time homebuyers only made up 32% of all purchasers, a sign that these buyers are facing many barriers when it comes to home purchases.
With that, the company set out to survey recent homebuyers, as well as those planning to buy, to find out what factors they deemed most important and used that data to rank the best metro areas.
ConsumerAffairs compared 153 major metros across nine factors giving each a financial friendliness score. measuring home prices, mortgage rates, property taxes and changes to home values over time, as well as a quality-of-life score that includes crime rate, unemployment rate, climate and racial diversity data.
Barnstable ranked No. 8 on the list because of its low unemployment rate and housing prices.
Plus, the town has recently invested $2 million in affordable housing with two grants announced by the Barnstable County Board of Regional Commissioners to address Cape Cod’s housing crisis. Those grants will include shelter, funding for affordable housing and workforce housing support.
Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina, topped the list, followed by Provo-Orem, Utah, and Naples-Marco Island, Florida. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, California, and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida, rounded out the top five.
This story is incomplete. Is the “community” that is so favorable to first-time homebuyers Barnstable County, which is all of Cape Cod? Because the Cape is famously UNaffordable for first timers. Is it the town of Barnstable which includes Hyannis but also pricey Hyannisport? Or the village of Barnstable on historic Rt. 6A where home values are high even for second-time buyers?
This has to be a joke? There are NO homes below $500,000 and those would most likely be fixer uppers. Low unemployment? Most service jobs can’t find employees because they can’t afford to live here. There has to be some kind of agenda hidden in this article.
Fall River? High crime rate. People aren’t fighting to move there.