Westword: Two Denver Suburbs Rank Among Top Places to Buy First Home

Westword | Bennito L. Kelty | July 31, 2025

Buying a house in Colorado isn't so bad, after all, according to a new nationwide ranking that lists two metro Denver towns among the best places to buy your first home.

Earlier this month, personal finance company WalletHub ranked the 300 best cities in the United States for first-time home-buyers. The study considered home prices, cost of living, home inventory and turnover, local mortgage lenders, crime rates and the quality of schools, among other metrics, to rank the top 300. Each city was then ranked in four categories: overall score, affordability, local real estate market and quality of life.

So, how did Colorado do?

Arvada: Solid Real Estate Between Mountains and the City

Just northwest of Denver in Jefferson County is Arvada, Colorado's seventh-most populated city with more than 120,000 residents, immediately north of Interstate 70. Like Thornton, Arvada is part of the same cluster of jurisdictions in the northern metro, but it's further east, neighboring Wheat Ridge, Westminster and the Denver Highlands. The city is known forOlde Town Arvada, a lively downtown center with a blend of historic and modern style, and it stretches into the mountains, towards pristine open space areas like Coal Creek Canyon. 

WalletHub ranked Arvada 23rd overall with a score of 59.62. The city's real estate market ranked 29th, which is based on factors like the price of homes compared to the average rent, the median number of days homes are on the market and the number of active home listings per capita.

Although Arvada's real estate market ranked higher than Thornton's, it ranked lower than three Colorado cities in the category: Aurora (twenty), Denver (24) and Longmont (27). But Arvada had better-rated life and affordability rankings. (Denver and Aurora had miserable rankings in those other categories.)

Arvada came in at 128th in affordability, eleven places back from Thornton. That also put Arvada two places back from its neighbor, Westminster, which ranked 126th in affordability.

Arvada ranked fifth among Colorado cities for quality of life, behind30 Thornton, Fort Collins, Boulder, and Longmont. 

Read the full article at Westword.