Cary Ranks in Top Five Towns for New Home Buyers
Cary, NC – Cary’s population may reach 170,000 by the end of the decade as more people move in. And a new study may have a clue as to why, with Cary ranking as the fourth best place for first-time home buyers.
Attractive to First Time Home Buyers
In the study by WalletHub, Cary ranked as the fourth best place for first-time home buyers, based on factors such as affordability, quality of life and “real-estate market.” This final category included factors such as rent-to-price ratio, median home-price appreciation and how many homes had been built in the past five years.
“The report’s methodology was developed in conjunction with academic experts and similar market studies done prior,” said Jill Gonzalez, analyst with WalletHub.
In the study, Cary scored well in these three cardinal categories, particularly in affordability. Of the top ten cities and towns in the study, Cary had the second-best scores for affordability, only coming behind Boise, Ida., which also scored low on its real-estate market.
Speaking of which, Cary had the 19th best real-estate market out of all the cities and towns in the study. Gonzalez said this helped Cary stand out.
“Cary ranked highly across the board, with affordable housing costs and a low cost of living index. The housing market in Cary is quite healthy, with a low foreclosure rate at only 0.022 percent,” Gonzalez said. “Over the past five years, construction has been on the rise in Cary, with almost 6 percent of housing units built during this time.”
Other Factors
Looking at the WalletHub study, Cary was surpassed in the study by three towns from Texas: McKinney, Fresno and Allen. In fact, many of the top-ranking towns and cities are in the South.
“Cities in the South have healthy housing markets that translate into high percentages of housing units being built and sold,” Gonzalez said. “It also helps that most of these cities have fairly low costs of living and affordable housing costs.”
Cary also had high marks in some of the specific metrics in the study. For example, Cary ranked fifth for lowest property crime rate.
When taking Cary’s current size into account, it ranked even higher. Among cities ranked as mid-sized, Cary came in second, falling behind McKinney, which took first overall in the general study too. And when looking at cities ranked as large, Raleigh came in first.
Story by Michael Papich. Photos by Triangle MLS.
