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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 79 of people said unemployment will be worse a year from now, even as fewer people said they worry about actual job losses. Even if a job is lost, nearly the same number of people—just north of 58 percent—said they wouldn't be worried about being able to find a new one. Meanwhile, median inflation expectations at the one-year horizon remained unchanged at 3 percent. Inflation uncertainty—or the uncertainty expressed by respondents regard- ing future inflation outcomes—also remained unchanged. PENNSYLVANIA Homes of "Steel" Affordability can be the biggest stumbling block for homebuyers looking to purchase their first property, especially in some of the biggest cities in the country. However, accord- ing to a recent study by LendingTree, cities such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City are the easiest places to buy a first-home that's also affordable. For the study, LendingTree ranked the 50 largest metropolitan areas on the basis of how friendly they were for first-time homebuyers by analyzing six factors. ey included, average down payment (amount and percent), share of buyers using FHA mortgage, average FHA down payment as a percentage of average down payment for all loans, percentage of buyers who have credit scores below 680, and the Housing Opportunity Index score for the area that measured the percentage of houses affordable to middle-income families. While the top three cities—Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City—had a consis- tently high rank across all the six metrics, the study found that Oklahoma City, Cleveland, and Memphis had the lowest down payments averag- ing $32,000. Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, and San Antonio ranked among the best cities for affordable homes based on the lowest down pay- ment percentage that averaged at 14 percent— two points lower than the median across all the 50 metros that were surveyed for this study. e study also revealed that almost 40 percent of buyers in Birmingham, Detroit, and Columbus used FHA financing to secure a mortgage—the highest among the cities that were ranked. ese cities also had the largest portion of buyers with credit scores below 680. However, when it came to the largest share of homes that are affordable to median income families, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Cleve- land scored top marks in the study. Cincinnati was also ranked fourth in the rankings for the 10 best cities for first-time buyers, followed by Birmingham, Indianapo- lis, Columbus, Louisville, Detroit, and Kansas City. At the other end of the spectrum, the worst cities in terms of affordability for first-time buyers was led by Los Angeles, followed by Denver, San Francisco, San Jose, Portland, San Diego, Miami, Seattle, New York, and Austin. Pittsburgh Homeowners Stick It Out Since the financial crisis, the U.S. has dealt with an ongoing inventory shortage, as many home builders left the industry after the crisis. e shortage has contributed to significant price surges in many cities, leaving homeown- ers with no choice but to stay put and not sell just yet. According to LendingTree Chief Econo- mist Tendayi Kapfidze, homeowners have been in their houses for about 7 years on aver- age, and out of the 50 cities LendingTree stud- ied, LendingTree found a high of 7.54 years in Pittsburgh to a low of 6.36 in Las Vegas. "e inventory shortage is often attributed to a lack of sufficient new construction, as many home builders left the industry after the crisis, and increasingly expensive labor and materi- als have reduced the margins on lower-priced homes," Kapfidze said. "ere is also a decreased supply of existing homes available for sale, which accounts for a much larger share of the total housing market than new construction." He also notes that many homeowners are staying put to reduce risk following the crisis. Additionally, he states that homeowners are also locked in by higher mortgage rates and limited job mobility. According to the study, cities with the shortest average homeowner tenure have greater price appreciation on average than those with the longest tenure. e top 10 cities had an average tenure of 7.46 years and an average three-year home price appreciation of 12 percent. According to LendingTree, this suggests that higher housing turnover drives prices upwards, while faster price appreciation could be enticing homeowners to sell. ese shortest tenures can be found in the sunniest places, such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Austin, according to LendingTree, with Denver being the only city in the bottom 10 that experiences a significant winter season. e longest tenures can be found in the north- east, with the top three cities being Pittsburgh, New York, and Buffalo. GET YOUR DAILY DOSE OF DEFAULT SERVICING NEWS Start your day with the most current and critical news on the mortgage default servicing industry from DSNews.com. Sign up for our e-mail newsletter and get the top stories delivered direct to your inbox every day. Register to receive your Daily Dose at DSNews.com GET YOUR DAILY DOSE OF DEFAULT SERVICING NEWS Start your day with the most current and critical news on the mortgage default servicing industry from DSNews.com. 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