San Jose in California has been rated the most competitive metro in the US by online lending marketplace LendingTree.
In San Jose people are putting down a typical deposit of 23.67%, while 84.15% of buyers have a good credit score – putting the region in first place in both categories.
The second most competitive isn’t far away, in San Francisco. In the city the average down payment is 21.43%, 81.96% of buyers have a good credit score, while 62.32% shopped around for a mortgage before buying a house.
LendingTree classes shopping around for a mortgage as a sign that an area is competitive, because people who do so are likely to be preapproved for mortgages before buying.
In third place is the far more affordable Raleigh in North Carolina, with an average deposit of 20.39%. Some 70.48% of buyers have a good credit score, while 61.5% of buyers shopped around for a mortgage before buying.
The least competitive is Virginia Beach in Virginia.
Average downpayments are low, at 17.5%, while only 57.69% of buyers had a credit score of 720 or higher.
Riverside, California and Atlanta, Georgia, were the joint second least competitive regions, according to the study.
