The absolute best place for millennial homebuyers? That’d be 63144—located in St. Louis, Missouri, according to new data from HomeUnion [1]. For millennials renters, the best market is a little further north, in Milwaukee’s 53122 zip code.
Together, these regions offer the best access to good schools and jobs, without long commutes or overly expensive housing.
Other zip codes to make the list of top spots for millennial homebuyers were 33434 (West Palm Beach, Florida); 15243 (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania); 44026 (Cleveland, Ohio); and 73003 (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma). Altogether, the list includes 17 cities—all of which boast an average monthly mortgage that does not exceed 28 percent of the median household income for the area.
According to Steve Hovland, Director of Research at HomeUnion, millennials face a predicament in today’s housing market.
"We know that millennials would like to own a home, but we also know that they struggle to find suitable for-sale options near major employment centers due to high home prices and low inventory,” Hovland said. “Homes in metro areas like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City, where many millennials prefer to live, are out of reach for the most of the millennial generation because of the disparity between prices and incomes. They are also burdened with high levels of student loan debt, which makes homeownership an additional challenge.”
Aside from Milwaukee, other zip codes ideal for millennial renters are 40243 (Louisville, Kentucky); 78705 (Austin, Texas); 73165 (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma); 63126 (St. Louis, Missouri). The full list included 24 zip codes where rent did not exceed 2.5 times gross income for the region.
To determine the best zip codes on both lists, HomeUnion looked at factors like school ratings, commute time, median income, and more. Only zip codes with cities in at least the 80th percentile were included.
"To help millennials with their housing predicament,” Hovland said, “we created a comprehensive list of zip codes that are the most affordable with excellent public schools, and also have the shortest commute times to job centers.”
To view the full list of results, click here [2].