What’s the best housing market in Southern California?

There is no “best place” to buy a home.

But the number crunchers at WalletHub put some math behind what’s largely an emotional debate, ranking 300 U.S. cities on their housing market’s real estate qualities (80% of the final score) and the community’s economics, such as affordability and jobs (the remaining 20%).

My trusty spreadsheet extracted the grades for the 52 Southern California cities in the report to see the winners and losers. Remember, these are WalletHub’s calculations involving 17 metrics. Like any “best places” scorecard, they’re more fodder for thought than major scientific proof.

Still, who doesn’t like a good real estate debate? And according to these calculations, Southern California’s best is a city that ranks high on many “best places” lists – Irvine.

How? The Orange County city was ranked as having the region’s best real estate conditions and was scored sixth-best in local economics. And by the way, Irvine was 10th-best on WalletHub’s overall national ranking.

Top grades

Note that nine of the remaining members of Southern California’s top 10 are from the Inland Empire or San Diego County. In order of local ranking …

– Ontario: No. 2 for real estate, No. 5 in economics and No. 34 nationally.

– Murrieta: No. 6 for real estate, No. 4 in economics and No. 58 nationally.

– San Diego: No. 4 for real estate, No. 23 in economics and No. 70 nationally.

– Chula Vista: No. 5 for real estate, No. 15 in economics and No. 75 nationally.

– Vista: No. 3 for real estate, No. 32 in economics and No. 76 nationally.

– Carlsbad: No. 7 for real estate, No. 24 in economics and No. 85 nationally.

– Rancho Cucamonga: No. 16 for real estate, No. 8 in economics and No. 91 nationally.

– Escondido: No. 8 for real estate, No. 30 in economics and No. 100 nationally.

– Garden Grove: No. 10 for real estate, No. 31 in economics and No. 112 nationally.

The bottom 10

Palmdale’s housing market got Southern California’s worst grade.

The Los Angeles County city ranked last among the 52 cities for real estate but scored 21st for local economics. And nationally, its overall grade ranks ninth-worst among 300 cities.

Note that eight other L.A. cities were also in the bottom 10. Here’s the lowly ranked, from second-lowest score through 10th-lowest:

– Lancaster: No. 51 of 52 local cities for real estate qualities, No. 20 in economics and No. 291 of 300 nationally.

– Victorville: No. 50 for real estate, No. 1 in economics and No. 277 nationally.

– Inglewood: No. 45 for real estate, No. 52 in economics and No. 267 nationally.

– Compton: No. 47 for real estate, No. 44 in economics and No. 260 nationally.

– Santa Clarita: No. 49 for real estate, No. 12 in economics and No. 256 nationally.

– Downey: No. 41 for real estate, No. 39 in economics and No. 239 nationally.

– South Gate: No. 39 for real estate, No. 43 in economics and No. 238 nationally.

– Los Angeles: No. 33 for real estate, No. 50 in economics and No. 237 nationally.

– San Bernardino: No. 46 for real estate, No. 13 in economics and No. 229 nationally.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

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August’s most-popular Southern California real estate stories …

No. 1: Where is Orange County’s hottest homebuying neighborhood?

No. 2: Real estate news: 338-unit affordable housing complex breaks ground in Tustin

No. 3: Peek inside this Newport Coast estate that just sold for $38.9M

No. 4: Enderle Center sale complete, Campo on 17th moves ahead in Tustin

No. 5: Rents rise in just 22% of Southern California. See which cities got hikes

No. 6: Home prices dip in 38% of OC. How did your ZIP do?

No. 7: LA-Orange County’s worst-paying jobs: Can those wages pay the rent?

No. 8: LA-Orange County homes still ‘unaffordable’ even with a 0% mortgage

No. 9: Real estate news: Corona del Mar retail center trades hands, a first in 80 years

No. 10: California housing is frozen, but not underwater

No. 11: Newport Beach reduces requirement rate for affordable housing near JWA

No. 12: California’s $627,000 equity in mortgaged homes ranks No. 2 in US

No. 13: Rancho Mirage estate by rule-breaking architect Robert Stone seeks $7.25M

No. 14: Newly built waterfront estate in Big Bear Lake lists for $15 million

No. 15: OC has 62 million-dollar ZIPs. Is yours on the list?

No. 16: 65 units of new affordable housing project in Midway City stacked into place

No. 17: Newly built waterfront estate in Big Bear Lake lists for $15 million

No. 18: This office broker sees big potential in Dana Point and San Clemente

No. 19: Southern California home prices hit record $840,000. Don’t cheer.

No. 20: Plans advance for 304 homes in Buena Park, Newport Beach