Tucson's housing market has been doing very well and this week received some national attention as one of the healthiest housing markets in the nation. On Tuesday, USA Today published an article "How Healthy is Your City's Housing Market" a list of the Top 25 Healthiest Housing Markets compiled by WalletHub researchers.
WalletHub, a consumer finance website, ranked 25 metropolitan areas on homeowners' "financial freedom," using data from the Census Bureau's American Housing Survey. Researchers looked for signs of a healthy housing recovery: places with high home equity, a short amount time left on mortgages, and where a buyer with an average credit score could get an affordable interest rate and down payment of less than 20%.
The researchers also doled out black marks against cities with potentially risky borrowing, like "easy" mortgages. If a high percentage of buyers were using government assistance, had a home equity line of credit or a lump-sum home equity loan, or owed more than their house was worth, the city moved down the list.
As of the first quarter of 2015, for instance, about 255,000 consumers had a bankruptcy notation added to their credit reports, the lowest quarterly total since 2006. Foreclosure rates have also dipped to their lowest since that same year. In addition, lower down payments and higher approval rates for people with average credit scores indicate a growing housing market.
Given such promising evidence of steady economic recovery, WalletHub compared the real-estate markets in 25 of the largest metropolitan areas across 10 key metrics.
Tucson was the only Arizona city on the list of healthiest housing markets and one of two cities in the Southwest region along with Las Vegas, NV. For the full report click here.
