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Report: Denver is the worst place in the country to be a first-time homebuyer

Posted at 11:51 AM, Feb 14, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-14 13:51:29-05

DENVER -- This will come as little surprise to anyone who's tried to buy a home in Denver in recent years, but the city was just named the worst place in the country for first-time homebuyers.

Mortgage company LendingTree compared the 100 biggest cities in the United States on a number of factors that can affect a person's ability to buy a home and Denver came in dead last on the list -- behind New York City and San Francisco.

Those factors included things like average down payment amounts and percentages, percentage of buyers with low credit scores and the share of homes that are affordable to a family making the area's median income.

Denver ranked near the bottom on nearly every measure, especially the average down payment, which sits at nearly $67,000, according to LendingTree.

Even if a first-time buyer is able to somehow scrape together enough cash for a down payment, finding a home to buy in the Denver area has become increasingly difficult as the number of homes on the market continues to reach new lows.

RELATED: Denver-area home prices inch upward in January; housing stock hits new low

It's not much better to the south -- Colorado Springs ranked 88th out of 100 cities.

Here are the 10 worst cities for first-time buyers, according to LendingTree:

1.    Denver, CO
2.    New York, NY
3.    San Francisco, CA
4.    Austin, TX
5.    Las Vegas, NV
6.    Los Angeles, CA
7.    Oxnard, CA
8.    Boston, MA
9.    Sacramento, CA
10.    Miami, FL

If you're looking for the cities with the best housing markets for first-time buyers, you'll want to head east:

1.    Little Rock, AR
2.    Birmingham, AL
3.    Grand Rapids, MI
4.    Youngstown, OH
5.    Winston, NC
6.    Dayton, OH
7.    Indianapolis, IN
8.    Scranton, PA
9.    Pittsburgh, PA
10.    Cincinnati, OH

To read the full report, log on to lendingtree.com.

RELATED: Tips and resources for first-time homebuyers