Higher incomes and lower prices is a combination that makes it easier to save up to buy a home.
Using that formula, Utah ranked 13th nationwide when it comes to being able to save up for a down payment on a new home, according to study by BadCredit.org, a Florida-based website that provides information on personal finances.
“Saving for a down payment on a home has become one of the biggest financial hurdles facing Americans,” a post on the website stated, noting that “where you live can have a significant impact on how quickly you can achieve homeownership.”
Leading the list of what the website called the best states to save for a down payment on a home was Maryland. With a median home value of $419,900, the study points out Maryland’s higher cost of living is offset by higher incomes.
Hawaii is followed by South Dakota, Virginia, New Hampshire and Iowa in the list’s top five, all states with lower median home values. In Iowa, the typical worth of a house is $208,000, making a 5% down payment $10,400.
Compare the size of that down payment to what a buyer would have to come up with in Hawaii, where the median value is the nation’s highest at $839,100, according to the study. There, a 5% down payment is almost four times higher than in Iowa at roughly $42,000.
Thanks to the high price of homes, Hawaii ranks 49th despite strong earnings. New York is at the bottom and California is also below Hawaii on the list that includes Washington, D.C., Oregon and Nevada round out the five worst states to save for a down payment.
The study gave Utah the nation’s 10th highest income score and ranked the Beehive State 17th on a housing affordability score that included property taxes and the cost of living as well as the value of homes.
For Utah the study used a median home value of $489,400. A new report from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute found the median sales price for all types of homes in the state reached $520,000 in the first quarter of 2026.
High-ranking states, the BadCredit.org study concluded, demonstrate that affordability is about more than housing prices by striking “a balance between earning power and housing affordability, giving residents more room to save for a home down payment.”
The size of a down payment varies. The median down payment on a home in the U.S. at the end of 2025 was $78,831, according to data from the National Association of Realtors, amounting to 19% of the $414,900 median sale price for a home in the fourth quarter of last year.
For first-time homebuyers, the median down payment was just 10% while previous home owners typically put down 23% of the sales price, Bankrate reported earlier this year. For a home sold at that median sale price, that’s a big difference in down payments, $41,490 vs $95,427.