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Rockford ranks among most affordable for home buyers: report

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ILLINOIS (WQRF) - Affordability continues to be a top concern for home buyers across the country, but those buyers might get the most bang for their buck in certain Illinois cities.

A new report from WalletHub suggests several cities in Illinois are some of the most affordable cities for home buyers across the country. Some of those cities even rank among the top 10.

To come to its findings, WalletHub used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Association of Realtors, the Council for Community and Economic Research, and the Insurance Information Institute, to determine city ranking in the report. It compared 300 U.S. cities across 10 key metrics, including housing affordability, insurance costs, real estate taxes, and appreciation rates, among others. (See how they weighted each of the 10 criteria in their methodology here.)

Lastly, WalletHub found each city's weighted average across all metrics to calculate overall scores and used them to rank the cities. (Scores for each city only include the city proper, and do not take into account bordering metro areas.)

The top 10 most affordable cities for home buyers in the U.S., overall, is listed below:

  1. Montgomery, AL
  2. Flint, MI
  3. Toledo, OH
  4. Detroit, MI
  5. Akron, OH
  6. Warren, MI
  7. Pittsburgh, PA
  8. Yuma, AZ
  9. Springfield, IL
  10. Palm Bay, FL

WalletHub also filtered its list by city size, categorizing large cities as those with more than 300,000 people, midsize cities as those with 100,000 to 300,000 people, and small cities as having fewer than 100,000 people.

In Illinois, Sangamon County's Springfield ranked ninth in WalletHub's list overall, but fourth among small cities. In terms of housing affordability alone, Springfield also outranked all other cities followed by Peoria.

However, data from real estate brokerage Redfin shows Springfield home prices rose 11.4% from 2022, selling for a median price of $156,000 in April. Meanwhile, data shows Peoria housing prices dropped 4.5% from last year, with a median selling price of $115,000.

Other Illinois cities that ranked high in the report include Peoria, ranking 21st, and Rockford, ranking 30th. Some Illinois cities that made the list, but ranked lower include Aurora at 70th, Waukegan at 81st, Elgin at 87th, Naperville at 111th, and finally Chicago at 126th.

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