Summary

Our analysis found that San Antonio is the best city for veterans to buy a home. It stood out with high marks for real estate and veteran well-being. Interestingly, it ranked #16 for veteran benefits. However, the other two categories pushed San Antonio to number one. Rounding out the rest of the top five are Raleigh, Virginia Beach, Columbus, and Orlando.

The bottom five cities are some of the nation’s largest: Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Miami, and San Jose. All but Miami ranked poorly for real estate and cost of living and many of the cities had poor marks for the other two categories as well.

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Methodology

To find the best cities for veterans to buy a home, we looked at data for the 50 largest MSAs in the United States. We ranked the cities using three categories:

Real estate Veteran well-being Veteran benefits

In all, there were 10 factors across those three larger categories that are listed below along with their corresponding weights. Each city was graded on an 80-point scale, with a score of 80 representing the ideal city for veteran homebuyers.

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Finally, we determined each city’s weighted average across all categories to calculate its Veteran Homebuyer Score and used the results to rank-order our sample.

Real estate—30 points

Cost of a home (based on the median home price)— Double Weight

Homes available (number of homes for sale per 100,000 veterans)— Double Weight

Cost of living— Double Weight

Veteran well-being—30 points

Percentage of veterans (percentage of the population who are veterans)— Full Weight

Veteran median income— Double Weight

Veteran unemployment (percentage of veterans in the workforce who are unemployed)—D ouble Weight

Percentage of veterans below poverty level (based on yearly income)— Full Weight

Veteran benefits—20 points

Number of VA Health centers (calculated using per 100,000 veterans rate)— Full Weight

Quality of VA Health centers— Double Weight

Number of VA Benefits Centers (calculated using per 100,000 veterans rate)— Full Weight

Sources

US Census Bureau

VA.gov

Zillow.com

Numbeo Cost of Living Index

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