--- title: 20 Places Where It’s Easiest to Save for Your First Home description: Cities in the Midwest top the rankings of places where it's easiest for first-time homebuyers to save for a down payment. authors: - name: Sarah Hansen role: Senior Writer url: https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/ bio: Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. Previously, she covered economic policy and capital markets on the breaking news desk at Forbes. education: Northwestern University, New York University at_money_since: 2021 articles: 347 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-m-hansen/ former_staff: true published: '2022-01-20T17:54:44.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T13:33:46.000Z' section: Housing tags: - buying a home - down payment - first-time homebuyer - homebuyers word_count: 624 canonical: https://money.com/cities-easy-to-save-first-home/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Historic Building In Downtown Bloomington, Illinois](https://img.money.com/2022/01/News-20-Places-Where-Its-Easy-To-Save-To-Buy-Your-First-Home.jpg) *Bloomington, Illinois* If you’re hoping to save up for your first home as fast as possible, the Midwest just might be the best place to start your search. A new [report](https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/rental-market/market-snapshots/look-to-the-midwest-for-a-place-to-save-and-buy-your-first-home-as-a-renter/) from RentCafe, a real estate listing and research firm, looked at 174 metro areas to identify the cities where it’s typically quickest to save up for a 20% down payment on a starter home. And the Midwest dominated the rankings. Bloomington, Illinois — where a median two-person family earns roughly $91,000 per year and the median starter home price is $105,249 — topped the list. By RentCafe’s calculations (using government data as well as data from Zillow), that two-person family can sock away 22% of their income and save enough money for a 20% down payment on a starter home in just one year. Springfield, Illinois, ranked second, with a timeline of one year and three months to save for a down payment. The median price of a starter home in Springfield is just $81,901. Seven of the 20 places on RentCafe’s list are located in Illinois, and 14 are in the Midwest. A handful of Midwestern cities including Beech Grove, Indiana, and Grimes, Iowa, also appeared on Realtor.com’s recent list of the [best cities for first-time homebuyers](https://money.com/best-markets-first-time-homebuyers-2022/) thanks to their low cost of living, good job markets and large inventory of available homes. Most of the places on RentCafe's list are small- and mid-sized cities, though larger metro areas like Washington, D.C., and Baltimore also make an appearance. ## Where it’s easiest for first-time homebuyers to save for a down payment Here are the top 20 cities where it’s easiest to save for your first down payment, according to RentCafe’s analysis, along with the estimated time it would take a two-person household to save up for a starter home in each. The metro areas below include the surrounding area (occasionally in multiple cities and states) as well as the main city listed. 1. **Bloomington, Illinois:** 1 year 2. **Springfield, Illinois:** 1 year, 3 months 3. **Cedar Rapids, Iowa:** 1 year, 9 months 4. **Trenton-Princeton, New Jersey:** 1 year, 10 months 5. **Ann Arbor, Michigan:** 2 years, 4 months 6. **Bismarck, North Dakota:** 2 years, 4 months 7. **Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut:** 2 years, 5 months 8. **Fargo, North Dakota-Minnesota:** 2 years, 5 months 9. **Madison, Wisconsin:** 2 years, 6 months 10. **Des Moines, Iowa:** 2 years, 7 months 11. **Hartford-Middletown, Connecticut:** 2 years, 8 months 12. **Fond du Lac, Wisconsin:** 2 years, 8 months 13. **Champaign-Urbana, Illinois:** 2 years, 8 months 14. **Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, Maryland:** 2 years, 9 months 15. **Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa:** 2 years, 10 months 16. **Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-Virginia-Maryland-West Virginia:** 2 years, 10 months 17. **Cincinnati, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana:** 2 years, 11 months 18. **Akron, Ohio:** 3 years, 1 month 19. **Decatur, Illinois:** 3 years, 2 months 20. **Naples-Marco Island, Florida:** 3 years, 3 months ## It won’t be much easier to buy a house in 2022 Last year was tough for first-time homebuyers: One economist estimated that it was taking first-time buyers [10 months longer](https://money.com/years-to-save-for-house-down-payment-rising/?ref=/first-time-homebuyers-crypto-down-payments/) to save for a down payment in August of 2021 than it did before the pandemic. Unfortunately, 2022 is shaping up to be difficult too, especially now that [mortgage rates are rising](https://money.com/current-mortgage-rates/) to levels not seen since March 2020. Homebuyers should be prepared for the market to remain very competitive. Keep in mind that while RentCafe’s analysis is based on a recommended 20% down payment, you don’t always have to put 20% down. The typical down payment for first-time homebuyers in 2021 was 7%, according to the [National Association of Realtors](https://cdn.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/documents/2021-highlights-from-the-profile-of-home-buyers-and-sellers-11-11-2021.pdf). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/cities-easy-to-save-first-home/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Housing Market", "item": "https://money.com/housing-market/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "20 Places Where It’s Easiest to Save for Your First Home" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/cities-easy-to-save-first-home/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/cities-easy-to-save-first-home/", "name": "20 Places Where It’s Easiest to Save for Your First Home", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2022-01-20T17:54:44.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/cities-easy-to-save-first-home/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/cities-easy-to-save-first-home/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T13:33:46.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "20 Places Where It’s Easiest to Save for Your First Home", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2022/01/News-20-Places-Where-Its-Easy-To-Save-To-Buy-Your-First-Home.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "News-20-Places-Where-Its-Easy-To-Save-To-Buy-Your-First-Home" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Hansen", "url": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/#author", "description": "Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. 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