Only my home state of North Dakota ranked above Minnesota in Lending Tree's recent list of the healthiest housing markets by state. They made their ratings based on five key criteria: debt-to-income ratio, unemployment, home ownership, negative equity and the average loan-to-value.
More than half of the top 10 states are in the central time zone, and all have home prices below the national average. It is interesting to note that all 10 of the healthiest markets together make up only 8.15% of the total US housing market while the bottom 10 make up nearly 36%, with California alone accounting for nearly 23% of the market.
Minnesota by the numbers for their criteria:
- Debt as percent of income: 6.7%
- Unemployment rate: 6.7%
- Home ownership: 72.6%
- Negative equity: 22.2%
- Average home price: $224,000
- Loan as percent of home value: 65.6%
- Percent of US market: 1.01%
According to their report, what really stands out in Minnesota is our low unemployment rate, which is about 2% below the national average of 8.8%. Although 22.2% negative equity may sound like a lot, it was among the best... as was debt as a percent of income.
Here is the full list of the 10 healthiest housing markets by state:
- North Dakota
- Minnesota
- New Hampshire
- Maine
- Iowa
- Wyoming
- Alaska
- Nebraska
- Texas
- Indiana
See more details by state at CNBC.
