10 housing markets with the most prime credit borrowers

With the housing market facing inventory shortages and rising home prices, almost any city can be competitive for buyers, with the level of difficulty buying a house depending on a number of factors.

The key measures of a market's competitiveness include how many home shoppers have prime credit scores, have a larger amount saved for a down payment and whether shoppers have gotten pre-approved for a mortgage before making a purchase offer, according to LendingTree.

Four of the top 10 housing markets with the largest share of home shoppers with prime credit scores are in California, where cities have a vast number of financially capable homebuyers with good credit.

Strong borrower competition in the Bay Area specifically can be attributed to the concentration of high-paying technology jobs, which can also be applied to Boston, another tech hub that made the cut, LendingTree said.

Western states dominated the top five slots on the list, with four out of five spots claimed by markets in California. East Coast cities like New York and Stamford, Conn., made the list, each with a 57% share of buyers with prime credit.

Here's a look at the 10 housing markets where the most homebuyers have prime credit scores. The data, from LendingTree, ranks the top 100 largest cities based on the percent of home shoppers with prime credit that used its site in 2017. Ties were broken by share of consumers that shopped for a mortgage before identifying a house, and then by the percentage of the average down payment.

Also check out 10 cities where the fewest house hunters have prime credit

Share of buyers with prime credit: 56%
Share of buyers who shopped for a mortgage before house hunting: 65%
Average down payment: 16%