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10 Cities With the Most Starter Homes for First-Time Buyers

March 8, 2025

3 min Read

Written by Vance Cariaga

Edited by Jenna Klaverweiden

aerial drone view of Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida with downtown Miami in the back.

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The term “starter home” has traditionally meant a house that’s affordable enough for first-time buyers, but finding one can be a challenge in the current market. Realtor.com likened it to “searching for a needle in a haystack,” thanks to the combination of rising home values, high mortgage rates and heavy competition.

Adding to the problem is that many home builders are hesitant to develop starter-home neighborhoods because their profit margins would be lower than with other types of housing developments.

Despite these challenges, there have been some encouraging trends lately.

“Starter home inventory has almost fully recovered relative to pre-pandemic, and actually represents a larger share of all homes compared to 2020,” Hannah Jones, senior economic research analyst at Realtor.com, said in a Feb. 24 press release.

The wild card is how inventory (and prices) will be impacted by stiff tariffs proposed by the Trump administration. One fear is that tariffs will raise the cost of essential building materials, such as lumber, aluminum and steel. If that happens, there could be a slowdown in construction and an increase in home prices, housing officials warn.

“President Trump made it a top priority to reduce housing costs and increase housing supply to ease the nation’s housing affordability crisis,” Carl Harris, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, said in a statement last month. “The administration’s move to impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum products imports into the U.S. runs totally counter to this goal by raising home building costs, deterring new development and frustrating efforts to rebuild in the wake of natural disasters. Ultimately, consumers will pay for these tariffs in the form of higher home prices.”

Today's Top Offers

Because of uncertainty surrounding the impacts of tariffs, now might be a good time for first-time buyers to look for a starter home. Here are the 10 cities with the most starter homes for sale, according to Realtor.com.

Also see simple ways to save for a house in 2025.