CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – A new study looking at housing statistics for metro areas that don’t quite crack the list of the nation’s 50 largest metros has found two hidden gems for housing in the Mountain State.

According to LendingTree, the company’s housing division published a report from the study, which ranked Charleston as the second-best hidden gem and Huntington as the fourth-best. The company says the study used data from the U.S. Census Bureau to identify 142 metro areas with populations of at least 250,000 people that are often disproportionately overlooked because they do not rank into the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S.

After identifying the 142 metros, the LendingTree researchers looked into several categories to rank them on housing. Those categories include:

  • population
  • the median home value
  • the homeownership rate
  • the median household income of homes with a mortgage that are occupied by the owner
  • the median monthly housing costs of homes with a mortgage that are occupied by the owner
  • the share of homes with a mortgage that are occupied by the owner that spend less than 30% of their monthly income on housing costs
  • the median annual property taxes for homes with a mortgage.

The study found that the top five “hidden gem” housing market metros are Huntsville, Alabama; Charleston, West Virginia; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Huntington, West Virginia; and South Bend, Indiana. Researchers say that due to several equally weighted factors in the data, a low rank in one or two categories can be outweighed by multiple high scores across the rest of the board.

According to the study, the top 10 hidden gems include two West Virginia metros, two Ohio metros and three Indiana metros.

These are the scores Charleston and Huntington received in each category:

Charleston:

  • Population: 252,942
  • Median home value: $124,600
  • Homeownership rate: 71.97%
  • Median household income of homes with a mortgage occupied by the owner: $78,369
  • Median monthly housing costs of homes with a mortgage occupied by the owner: $1,074
  • Share of homes with a mortgage occupied by the owner that spend less than 30% of their monthly income on housing costs: 77.44%
  • Median annual property taxes for homes with a mortgage: $910

Huntington:

  • Population: 356,581
  • Median home value: $130,700
  • Homeownership rate: 73.50%
  • Median household income of homes with a mortgage occupied by the owner: $78,933
  • Median monthly housing costs of homes with a mortgage occupied by the owner: $1,106
  • Share of homes with a mortgage occupied by the owner that spend less than 30% of their monthly income on housing costs: 76.54%
  • Median annual property taxes for homes with a mortgage: $1,110

Of the top 50 on LendingTree’s list, Charleston had the lowest median home value followed by Huntington at the second-lowest. For homeownership rates, Huntington came in at the eighth-highest, with Charleston following at the eleventh-highest rate.

For more information on the study, visit LendingTree’s website here.