First time home buyers

The bottom five cities in the ranking have an average total score of 30.48.

The top five cities in the ranking have an average total score of 64.5 out of 100.

Designated mortgage professionals who can work in community outreach as well as regular monitoring of program outcomes are also important components that will help programs meet goals, industry leaders say.

Gen Z homebuyers make up a 21.26% share of purchase requests in the top five metropolitan areas.

The program is even lower than Freddie Mac's best of 3%, with Zillow offering to pay 2% of the down payment at closing, according to a statement Thursday.

The bottom five metropolitan areas have an average share of mortgage purchase requests from Gen Z homebuyers of 9.29%.

Home-purchase applications fell to the lowest level in a generation last week — and demand may be depressed even further when the pandemic-era freeze on student debt ends in October, according to a poll conducted by Pulsenomics LLC among more than 100 housing experts. 

Millennials make up the biggest chunk of the pie, representing 49%, while Gen Z represented 27% of all first-time borrowers this year, a Zillow report said.

Houses in the northeast and midwest got more expensive. In the South and the west, prices dwindled, according to the organization's Metropolitan Median Area Prices and Affordability report.

The decision from the Federal Housing Finance Agency to allow lenders to review only two credit reports for mortgage applicants will harm homebuyers with less than perfect credit, writes the founder and CEO of Financial Services Innovation Coalition and a certified general appraiser at the Dawson Valuation Group.