By Anita Balakrishnan | USA TODAY
WalletHub, a consumer finance website, looked at how the housing recovery affected consumers across the country. Having the right type of financing could set home buyers up for success — and the risky kind could set families up for failure down the road, said WalletHub spokeswoman Jill Gonzalez.
So WalletHub ranked 25 metropolitan areas on homeowners’ “financial freedom,” using data from the Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey. Researchers looked for signs of a healthy housing recovery: places with high home equity, a short amount time left on mortgages, and where a buyer with an average credit score could get an affordable interest rate and down payment of less than 20%.
