Minneapolis Housing Market Among Most Competitive In U.S.: Study

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Minnesota is home to one of the most competitive housing markets in the U.S. According to a study released by LendingTree, Minneapolis is the 16th most competitive market in the nation.

LendingTree’s rankings of the 100 most competitive housing markets in the U.S. were based on factors that “truly create a competitive market for homebuyers,” the company explained. To compile the rankings, LendingTree looked at factors like how many house hunters are putting more money down, have high credit scores and “start loan shopping before home shopping.”

To come up with the rankings, LendingTree said it looked at 1.5 million purchase mortgage loan requests that came through the company’s marketplace in the 100 largest U.S. cities for 2017.

The cities were then ranked based on the following three criteria:

• The share of buyers shopping for a mortgage before identifying the house they want
• Average down payment percentage
• Percentage of buyers who have prime credit (above 680)

Here are the top 20 most competitive housing markets in the country:

San Francisco, California
San Jose, California
Denver, Colorado
San Diego, California
Ventura, California
Los Angeles, California
Seattle, Washington
Honolulu, Hawaii
Portland, Oregon
Sacramento, California
Boston, Mass.
Boise, Idaho
Madison, Wisc.
Las Vegas, Nev.
Minneapolis, Minn.
Austin, Texas
Miami, Fla.
Sarasota, Fla.
Washington, D.C.

Here are the least competitive or most accessible housing markets in the U.S.:

Youngstown, Ohio (100)
McAllen, Texas (99)
Scranton, Pennsylvania (98)
El Paso, Texas (97)
Dayton, Ohio (96)
Augusta, Georgia (95)
Birmingham, Alabama (94)
Winston-Salem, North Carolina (93)
Little Rock, Arkansas (92)
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (91)

Image via Shutterstock