A new report reveals that cities in California are among the worst for first-time home buyers.
Using twenty-two metrics related to affordability, real estate market conditions, and quality of life, personal finance company WalletHub revealed that all of the ten worst cities are in Democrat-run states. Nine are in California.
The worst cities are as follows:
- Berkeley, California
- Oakland, California
- San Francisco, California
- Santa Monica, California
- Los Angeles, California
- San Mateo, California
- Santa Barbara, California
- Glendale, California
- Burbank, California
- Boston, Massachusetts
Meanwhile, the best states are as follows:
- Chesapeake, Virginia
- Gilbert, Arizona
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Cape Coral, Florida
- Boise, Idaho
- Hampton, Virginia
- Peoria, Arizona
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Norfolk, Virginia
- Surprise, Arizona
California continues to bottom out the rankings even when removing small cities from consideration:
- Oakland, California
- San Francisco, California
- Los Angeles, California
- Boston, Massachusetts
- New York City, New York
- Long Beach, California
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Washington, DC
- San Jose, California
- Honolulu, Hawaii
As The Daily Wire recently reported, high housing costs and other quality-of-life issues are driving Californians to other parts of the country. California State Controller Betty Yee — who analyzed the impact of net migration on tax revenues — found that outmigration has tracked closely with skyrocketing real estate prices.
“The average home price in California is more than double the U.S. average,” she wrote in a June paper. “The high cost of housing in California makes it more difficult for current California renters to strengthen their ties to California by purchasing homes, makes it harder for potential in-migrants to move here, and encourages current homeowners to extract value from their homes by moving to less expensive states.”
California’s crime rate — a key metric used by WalletHub to measure quality of life — skyrocketed in 2020. State Attorney General Rob Bonta revealed that California’s homicide rate rose by 31%, while the aggravated assault rate rose by 8.8%. The number of law enforcement officers assaulted with a firearm increased by 30.2%; the number assaulted with other dangerous weapons increased by 60.8%. The total number of domestic violence calls for assistance involving a firearm rose by 42%.
Homelessness is an increasingly salient challenge for policymakers in the Golden State. However, officials in San Francisco are creating “safe sleeping villages” that cost nearly $60,000 per tent. In Los Angeles, Sheriff Alex Villanueva faced sharp resistance from citizens and politicians after attempting to remove homeless people who moved to California from out of state.
After the 2020 Census — by which seats in the House of Representatives were reapportioned according to state population data — California lost one seat. New York, Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania also lost representation.
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Source: Dailywire
