Best cities for first-time homebuyers

Home values (median): $219,200
Annual forecasted appreciation: 4.8%

While prices have been rising in Las Vegas since the housing bust decimated the real estate market there, Zillow economists think the market still has room to grow. Its 4.8% projected growth rate for this year is higher than any other market analyzed by the site for this report.

Sales of new homes, in particular, are booming in Las Vegas, and also alleviating some of the inventory issues seen in other markets. "We are a great deal, if you're coming to Las Vegas from Southern California or the Northeast," says David Tina, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. "You're going to get a lot of bang for your buck."

First published June 16, 2017: 11:47 AM ET

Source: Zillow
The Best cities for first-time homebuyers top 10 is based on Zillow's "First-time Home Buyer Index." The index captures a balance of five metrics: low median home values for an affordable down payment, a strong home value forecast to indicate a good start to growing equity, a larger inventory-to-household ratio to capture available supply, a greater share of listings with price cuts to surface less competitive buying experiences, and a faster breakeven to demonstrate a strong incentive to buy over rent. These five metrics are ordered and metros are scored on a scale from 0 to 10 along a uniform distribution. The five scores are then averaged and the average re-scaled to range from 0 to 10.

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