10 best US real estate markets for first-time homebuyers in 2025

August 15, 2025 4:45 PM

Ask any real estate expert about the most important factor in buying a home, and you'll hear the same thing: location, location, location. It's a cliché because it's true — and for today's first-time buyers, it's also one of the biggest hurdles. Finding a place that checks the boxes for lifestyle and amenities while staying within budget is no small feat in an era of record prices and high interest rates.

To help, finance site Wallethub ranked 300 U.S. markets on quality of life, market attractiveness and affordability, naming the top 10 cities for first-time buyers.

We spoke with local real estate pros in each of these cities to learn why they stand out — and why new homeowners are putting down roots there.

Sunrise, Florida

Median home price: $422,500 (as of June 2025)
Population: 97,335
Nearest metro: 32 miles north of Miami, Fla.
Local professional: Larry Singh, President of the Broward-Miami Realtors Association

"The appeal of Sunrise is the diversity that comes with Sunrise. The affordability, the jobs, the sports and entertainment, the shopping, even transportation and dining – those are kind of some overarching things that you see that's constant amongst many buyers.

"South Florida has some of the best dining, as you can tell with all these new restaurants opening up now. Being in Sunrise, you have your local dining option, which is some of the most upscale eateries in South Florida. But you also get the benefit of proximity to Miami and Palm Beach where, if those one-off restaurants open up, you can still take advantage of them. And it's not a two-hour drive to Orlando. You can just do it on a Friday night."

Downtown Lakeland, Florida, on Lake Mirror

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Lakeland, Florida

Median home price: $315,000 (as of June 2025)
Population: 112,641
Nearest metro: 35 miles east of Tampa, Fla.
Local professional: Lisa Reinstetle, real estate agent at Keller Williams Smart

"I think what really makes Lakeland shine is the fact it's located centrally between Tampa and Orlando. That's gotta be number one, because we are right next to big cities that have everything you may want – sporting events, attractions, beaches, you name it. So that's ideal if you take a job in one of those cities. Lakeland is affordable moreso, so you could go to either location and still work if that's what you had to do.

"We're getting a lot of out-of-state buyers, and they think 'This is huge! We're getting a big house for the money!' because they may be coming from an apartment in New York City or someplace in one of the suburbs up north. And so they're feeling like, 'Gosh, this is so spacious for the money.'

"We have Bonnet Springs, it's kind of like Central Park [in] New York, but it's in Lakeland, and it's amazing. You know, walking trails, water features. There's playground areas for kids, there's the museum right there that you could go indoors and let your children play. And so there's some things that I think are going to be really appealing."

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Orlando, Florida

Median home price: $407,000 (as of June 2025)
Population: 307,573
Local professional: Lawrence Bellido, president of the Orlando Regional Realtor Association

"Orlando should be number one on the list. I love Orlando. We moved here 40 years ago and I got to tell you, the growth, the opportunity, it's endless here. There's just so much that we have going on, and people are experiencing that."

"From Orlando, you can get anywhere easily, to the beaches, either east coast or west coast. So a lot of people take I4 and there's lots of great things to do out in those areas. If someone's bored and wants to go enjoy some rough waves, they can go out to the east coast where Daytona is at, and New Smyrna Beach, and enjoy those rough waves… But then if you want something a little bit more relaxed, you go to the west coast where the waters are much calmer and you have nice, beautiful scenery from the sundown."

Cape Coral, Florida.

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Cape Coral, Florida

Median home price: $369,000 (as of June 2025)
Population: 194,016
Nearest metro: 135 miles south of Tampa, Fla.
Local professional: Karen Borrelli, president of the Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association and an agent at John R. Wood Properties and Christie's International Real Estate

"We have a lower entry cost than other coastal communities in the Florida area, especially the Southwest Florida area, so it's affordable. We have a lot of inventory right now, and there's builder incentives so you could get a brand new home for around $330,000 with builder incentives, like $20,000 towards closing costs."

"We have 400 miles of canals. A lot of them are Gulf access canals, so a lot of the homes here, people have their boats right in their backyard, right on their canal. They use the boats to go fishing, to go to the islands. It's really an interesting place. The city itself [has] 38 public parks and nature reserves, so there's really something for everyone. One of the parks has manatees, so there's a manatee viewing area."

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Gilbert, Arizona

Median home price: $590,000 (as of June 2025)
Population: 267,918
Nearest metro: 22 miles southeast of Phoenix, Ariz.
Local professional: Christine Bayer, real estate agent and owner of Bayer Realty

"Gilbert is very much a family community. In downtown Gilbert, there are a lot of restaurants and different places to eat and dine. There's a Gilbert museum that I enjoy because it goes back and shows the history of Gilbert and how Gilbert started. Then outside of Gilbert, there's downtown Chandler. They reinvented it just like Gilbert did, and that's only about 10 minutes away. Or you can drive into Tempe or downtown Phoenix in about 20 minutes. And in Phoenix, you've got all the museums, you've got all the amenities of the sports teams.

"You know, Covid helped people to see that the cost of living here is a lot less. But also we have Apple here, we have Facebook building a big company spot, we have the semiconductors out in the West Valley that are providing thousands and thousands of jobs. And then we've got Intel. So we have bigger companies that are investing in Arizona and with that, they're bringing people that are moving here."

Cityscape scene of downtown Huntsville, Alabama, from Big Spring Park

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Huntsville, Alabama

Median home price: $346,000 (as of June 2025)
Population: 215,006
Nearest metro: 100 miles north of Birmingham, Ala., and 110 miles south of Nashville, Tenn.
Local professional: Tamara Fox, president of the Huntsville Area Association of Realtors

"We're a great city here. We have more Ph.D.s per capita, one of the higher cities for that. We have a lot of engineers here, a lot of rocket scientists. We have NASA here, we have Meta here, we have Amazon here. So it's just a really vibrant community made up of a lot of different people."

"Downtown we have the square, and it's super quaint and cute. A lot of little restaurants. Sometimes the city will do pop-up markets, whether it be art markets or games. They'll do these like big arcade games on the square and you can get something to eat. We have Big Spring Park down there, where our art museum is. Sometimes we have food truck rallies down there where you can go and just hit up all sorts of different kinds of food."

"We have all these people coming from all these different areas that are contributing to this, which makes it really fun. You know, the question is, 'Are you from Huntsville?' People ask that all the time, and we have a lot of transplants here. They come here and they don't leave. It's just that nice."

Looking south along the 303 freeway west of Phoenix, Arizona from above

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Surprise, Arizona

Median home price: $418,825 (as of June 2025)
Population: 143,148
Nearest metro: 25 miles northwest of Phoenix, Ariz.
Local professional: Teresa Rubio-Acuna, real estate agent at Full House Realty Of Arizona

"We have the White Tanks just to the west of us, five miles from us. There's camping, mountain biking, hiking. We have Lake Pleasant just a little north of us, it's kind of the Peoria, Surprise area. So you have, you know, the floating recreational area there.. That's going to tell you. Within our neighborhoods, there's bike trails, there's walking trails. We have big parks that have aquatics in them.

"[The restaurant scene] is blowing up in Surprise. They brought out a little section and it's growing. It's called Prasada, it's a shopping development, but within this shopping area they have, you know, Lou Malnati's, they have a Mexican restaurant called Barrio Queen… When you get to downtown Phoenix, you're gonna get a little bit more of the eclectic food, a little more hip, let's say, a little bit more of a younger crowd."

Tampa, Florida, USA downtown city skyline over the Hillsborough River.

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Tampa, Florida

Median home price: $436,500 (as of June 2025)
Population: 384,959
Local professional: Jay Quigley, real estate agent at Florida Executive Realty and former president of Greater Tampa Realtors

"We have great weather most of the year. You can barbecue, you can golf, you can do things year-round here in Florida, I think that's one draw. The other draw is that in this area, we really have a really nice medical and technology community. There are lots of opportunities for those in the medical field and in the IT space to find opportunities to work, find opportunities to create their own businesses.

"We have some amazing theater-slash-concert venues. We have the Straz Center, which brings in Broadway shows. We have, you know, Busch Gardens, which is a world-renowned kind of theme park. And right next to it is Adventure Island. So folks that want to throw on their bathing suits and go down slides and do all kinds of fun water stuff, we've got that.

And then just outside of downtown Tampa, we have Ybor City, which is a couple of major streets. Seventh Avenue is the main street, where it is just packed with restaurants, cigar shops, bars, all kinds of fun things for people to do."

The Idaho State Capital Building Peaks Out Between Structures in Boise

Downtown city center of Boise Idaho framed by Schafer Butte

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Boise, Idaho

Median home price: $512,500 (as of June 2025)
Population: 235,685
Local professional: Elizabeth Hume, president of Boise Regional Realtors

"People are friendly here. When I moved back to Boise, it struck me how many people have flowers out and make their house look pretty. Even apartments, people would have a pot of flowers out. And so I think it's just a pretty place to live. It's got all the seasons. So just when you think you're done being hot, it starts to cool off a little bit. It's easy to get to camping and backpacking and all of that stuff.

"And then one of the other things that makes buying your first home here appealing is Idaho has some really nice first-time homebuyer programs. Idaho Housing [and Finance Association] is an agency that has some loan programs, so some of the people I've helped, they can almost get 100% financing through those programs if they qualify. And they're not always low income programs, they are primarily for first-time homebuyers."

Aerial view of beautiful Palm Beach and Singer Island, Florida, along with the Atlantic Ocean, and the red roof tops of Worth Avenue.

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Palm Beach, Florida

Median home price: $3.2 million (according to Redfin, as of June 2025)
Population: 9,245 (as of 2020 census)
Nearest metro: 75 miles north of Miami, Fla.
Local professional: Jonathan Lickstein, president of the Broward, Palm Beaches & St. Lucie Realtors

"If you're coming from an area like New York, you definitely want the big city feel, and you can get that in West Palm Beach. You're in extremely close proximity to Fort Lauderdale, and an hour and 10 minutes from Miami. So an hour and 10 minutes in New York, you could have lived right outside the city and take that amount of time to get in. That's the same equivalent we have, because our traffic is not nearly as bad… But number one is going to be the weather. Anytime you're not working, you can step outside, it's bright, sun shining, and life is beautiful year-round. You couldn't do that for eight months out of the year anywhere else.

"Specifically speaking to Palm Beach, you have a zoo, you have an outdoor safari area, an amusement park, [and] lots of features for the children. When it comes to adults, you're right on the border of the Everglades, so kayaking, air boats, wildlife, biking. You can do everything year-round down here, it just affords a very active lifestyle."