15 Cities Where You Can Save for a Down Payment Fastest

Research by RentCafe finds that a powerful pay to save for a down payment on a home of their own is for apartment renters to downsize by one bedroom.

The online listing service's analysis of nearly 200 cities found that it didn't matter whether you're going from three bedrooms to two, two bedrooms to one, or one bedroom to a studio; the effect was the same: Renters would save an average of $3,735 annually.

Here are the 15 cities where those savings would have the most impact.

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Shedding one bedroom from an apartment in this Southwest Ohio market can shave the time for saving for a down payment to one year and nine months.

That’s based on a savings of $3,168 going toward a 10% down payment on a typical starter home priced at $57,562 in the city of 137,000 residents, where the Wright Brothers used their bike shop to build an airplane. (Rent Café says the median starter home price in this list is based on the Zillow Home Value Index.)

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The City of Brotherly Love is one month behind Dayton. You can save for a down payment in one year and 10 months here, with the $7,416 you'll save each year with that smaller apartment. That'll give you a down payment of $14,229 toward the $142,229 the median starter home in Philadelphia is valued at in the Zillow Index.

The median value of a starter home in Mississippi's capital city is $36,413. Downsizing the typical apartment here by a bedroom would save $1,800 over the two years it would take to accumulate a $3,641 down payment. Jackson currently has a population of about 154,000, and its metro area of 600,000 people constitutes more than a fifth of the Magnolia State's total head count.

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Twenty-seven months is how long Rent Café says its data shows it would take a tenant in Chicago to become a homeowner by shedding one bedroom and banking the difference. The median starter home price in America’s third-largest city is $201,848. The annualized savings of $8,916 would take that long to produce the 10% down payment of $20,185.

The hometown of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide is tied with Chicago at 27 months to rustle up a 10% down payment by giving up one bedroom and putting that money toward the purchase of a $122,221 median-priced starter home in this city of about 100,000 people. That downsizing translates to $5,292 a year in savings, for those keeping score.

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Twenty-seven months is also how much time it'll take you to save the 10% for a down payment in the Motor City. The median starter home price here is $45,478, according to those Zillow figures, and downsizing by one bedroom will generate $1,956 in annualized savings toward that down payment of $4,548.

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Strike one bedroom from that apartment in Birmingham, and you can see savings of $2,172 a year. And that will get you the down payment in 30 months for a median starter home valued at $55,125. That 10% down to get started here is only $5,513. Birmingham itself has about 197,000 residents, but the metro area of about 1.1 million is the state's largest.

The Big Apple is our nation's biggest city and one of the most expensive. Downsize by one bedroom here and you can save $20,148 in rent per year to build your down payment for a median-priced home in two years and seven months.

That thriftiness can result in a down payment of $53,112 for a starter home in a market where the median value is $531,117.

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Greenville is a city of about 93,000 residents and home to East Carolina University and its student body of about 29,000. You can save $4,656 a year in rent here by going one bedroom smaller, giving you a down payment of $12,589 toward the median starter home price of $125,894, Rent Café says.

Mobile is set on Mobile Bay astride the Gulf of Mexico and has been around since 1702 -- Mobile also lays claim to being the original home of Mardi Gras parades. It now has a population of about 187,000.

Rent Café says to shrink the apartment by one bedroom and you can save $2,916 a year here in the Azalea City. In 33 months, you can gather the $8,127 you need for a 10% down payment on a house at the median market price of $81,270.

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Columbus borders Alabama in Central Georgia and is the Peach State's second-largest city, with a population of about 207,000. Zillow pegs the median starter home price here at $79,124. Like Mobile, it'll take 33 months to come up with a 10% down payment. In this case, that would be $7,912 for your sacrifice of one less bedroom in the apartment.

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The capital of the Great Lakes State has a median starter home price of $88,855. Rent Café says it'll take 36 months of renting one less bedroom to save the capital for a 10% down payment of $8,886 in this city of about 112,000 residents (but a metro area of about 541,000).

The Great Lakes are in play here, too. Cleveland is, of course, where the Cuyahoga River meets Lake Erie. And in 40 months, you can save $1,812 a year in rent to scratch up the $6,070 needed for a down payment on the median starter home here, valued by Zillow at $60,700. That is if you shrink your digs by one bedroom.

Pembroke Pines is about 20 miles north of Miami and has a population of about 170,000 people itself in a growing metro area of about six million souls. The median price of a starter home in this Broward County city is $235,633 -- and three years, six months is what it will take to save for a 10% down payment. That’s an annualized $6,960 in rent savings toward a down payment of $23,563.

Statesboro is home to Georgia Southern University and is nestled in the pine woods and farmlands of Southeast Georgia. Shed one bedroom here, and you'll save $3,336 a year in rent. In three years and five months, you will find yourself with the $11,473 needed for a 10% down payment at Zillow's median starter home price of $114,733.

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Home sales have slowed as interest rates have soared, and a recession could be here already or is certainly deemed looming. That will change some of the algebra for each potential buyer, but the desire for a home to call their own isn't likely to fade -- and RentCafe' says 36% of the 3,659 website visitors it recently surveyed said they were willing to downsize like that to afford their first home.

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