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Photo: Stanley Chang / EyeEm / Getty Images/EyeEm Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Image 2 of 7 Berkeley tied with S.F. for the least-affordable market. It also had the lowest average numbers of days on the market and was second-best for markets with positive equity. It had the 98th "Best" market overall. less Berkeley tied with S.F. for the least-affordable market. It also had the lowest average numbers of days on the market and was second-best for markets with positive equity. It had the 98th "Best" market ... more Photo: kwei / Getty Images Image 3 of 7 Sunnyvale scored among the "best" nationwide for lowest average number of days until a house is sold; highest median home-price appreciation; lowest foreclosure rate; lowest percentage of mortgage holders in delinquency; and lowest maintenance costs as a percentage of income. It had the 35th "Best" market in the country—the best in the Bay Area. less Sunnyvale scored among the "best" nationwide for lowest average number of days until a house is sold; highest median home-price appreciation; lowest foreclosure rate; lowest percentage of mortgage holders in ... more Photo: MLS Image 4 of 7 San Mateo ranked first in lowest percentage of homes with negative equity. It also did well in lowest number of days on the market. It had the 63rd "Best" market in the nation. San Mateo ranked first in lowest percentage of homes with negative equity. It also did well in lowest number of days on the market. It had the 63rd "Best" market in the nation. Photo: Sylvia Schug / Getty Images Image 5 of 7 Image 6 of 7 San Jose had the 68th "Best" market in the country and nearby Santa Clara had the lowest percentage of mortgage holders in delinquency in the country. San Jose had the 68th "Best" market in the country and nearby Santa Clara had the lowest percentage of mortgage holders in delinquency in the country. Photo: Geri Lavrov / Getty Images Image 7 of 7 S.F. and Berkeley tie for last in home affordability in nationwide survey 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

In San Francisco and Berkeley, homebuyers need to spend a higher percentage of their incomes to buy a home than buyers in almost any other city in the country. The cities tied for last place in affordability along with other Golden State locations like Glendale, Santa Monica and Santa Barbara in a new Wallethub survey that claims to have discovered the “Best Real Estate Markets” in the country.

The financial services and credit score site looked at data on foreclosure rates, mortgage delinquency rates, vacancy rates, and median home-price appreciation, among other factors, to create a “real-estate market” score for 300 American cities. In these categories, the Bay Area excelled. In fact, the Bay Area took the top five spots for cities with the lowest percentage of homes with negative equity: San Mateo came in first, Berkeley second, Sunnyvale third, Santa Clara fourth and San Francisco fifth.

Sunnyvale in particular did very well across the board, coming in among the top five markets nationwide for lowest average number of days until a house is sold (Berkeley was number one, San Mateo number three); highest median home-price appreciation; lowest foreclosure rate; lowest percentage of mortgage holders in delinquency; and lowest maintenance costs as a percentage of income.

The South Bay city ranked 21st nationwide for its “real-estate market” score—the highest of any Bay Area city. But in order to come up with its overall “best” ranking, Wallethub also took affordability into account. And that’s where Sunnyvale, and other Bay Area cities, lost their edge and several more-affordable but still booming markets were able to take the lead. (When affordability factors are included, Sunnyvale had the 35th “best” market, significantly lower but still the best in the Bay Area.)

With a top score in both its local real-estate market and affordability scores, Frisco, Texas took the “Best Real Estate Market” title, followed closely by other smaller Texas cities like McKinney and Richardson. Since each of these cities has less than 150,000 people, Wallethub also distinguished Overland Park, Kansas as the “best” market for mid-size (150,000 to 300,000) cities and Austin as the “best” large market (over 300,000).

But affordability issues kept Bay Area cities out of contention for a top prize in any of the categories, with San Jose as the 18th “best” large market and San Francisco at 22nd. Oakland did the worst for a Bay Area city, ranking 39th out of 62 large cities surveyed.

Detroit had the worst large-city market in the country, according to Wallethub’s metrics. Faring only slightly better were Cleveland, Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Emily Landes is a writer and editor who is obsessed with all things real estate.