FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WOWO): Fort Wayne has been named the best place to find a starter home.
The ranking came via StorageCafe analysis of Property Shark, Zillow, U.S. Census, BLS, Coli, FHA, Value penguin, Governing, Yardi Matrix and NAR data. Storage Cafe is a nationwide storage space search website and a part of Yardi.
StorageCafe looked at 108 U.S. cities and ranked them across more than 20 factors, including home values for 2-bedroom homes, 5-year sales activity involving properties averaging 1,700 square feet or less, mortgage rates, incomes and cost of living.
Fort Wayne ranks third in lowest median home values in the nation at $113,144 for a 2-bedroom home. The city also has the lowest cost of living among the 108 cities and a low unemployment rate. Another factor that helped Fort Wayne’s top ranking is that it is the 19th most active starter home market based on the number of small homes (less than 1,700 sq. ft.) sold over the last five years.
Two other Indianapolis-area cities—Fishers and Carmel—came in at no. 4 and no. 6, respectively.
Columbia, Maryland and Pittsburgh came in second and third on the list while Columbus, Ohio rounded out the top five.
You can view the full report here.
