Phoenix suburb among most affordable U.S. cities for homebuyers

Surprise is full of surprises. 

It turns out the unassuming West Valley suburb has a trick up its sleeve: It’s actually pretty affordable. So affordable, in fact, that Surprise ranked as the country’s most affordable midsize city for homebuyers and the third-most affordable among U.S. cities of all sizes, according to a study by WalletHub.

The quickly growing suburb borders the White Tank Mountains and was once home to a mere 30,000 residents. Now it’s just more than five and a half times that size, according to recent Census Bureau data. Recently, it’s made news due to a controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility that the federal government is slated to open within its borders.

To determine its rankings, WalletHub analyzed data — from the National Association of Realtors, Census Bureau, Council for Community and Economic Research and Insurance Information Institute — in a sample of 300 cities of varying sizes across the nation. The study looked at 10 metrics of different weights, including housing affordability, cost of living, vacancy rate, cost per square foot and more. It graded each city on a 100-point scale and then calculated a weighted average to produce an overall score. WalletHub analyzed only data for the cities themselves and did not include metro areas.

Surprise ranked third overall with a score of 73.27. It ranked first among cities with populations of 150,000 to 300,000 people. Of the 300 cities analyzed, it had the 18th-highest median home price appreciation. Its median real estate tax rate was the eighth-lowest, and Surprise had the 11th-highest ratio of quarterly active listings per 1,000 residents. According to the study, these numbers show that there’s strong property value growth, a lower overall cost of homeownership and a decent number of properties to choose from at any given time. 

Eight other Phoenix-area cities made the list. Mesa came in 15th overall, while Scottsdale ranked last in the state at 144 out of 300. Here’s how all the Valley cities ranked.