Foothold: Rent-vs-Own Screening Data for 83 U.S. Metros (2026)
Description
The dataset behind Van to Vault's Foothold screen: 83 U.S. metros with the inputs used to test where buying a small two-to-four unit property beats renting for a first-time, owner-occupant buyer. 23,424 two-to-four unit listings were screened across the 83 metros and 11,495 survived every livability and financing test. On the metro-level figures those survivors produce, 11 metros clear the affordability bar at a 6.66% mortgage rate. Data as of 2026-08-06. One row per metro: entry price (25th-percentile surviving listing), typical price, surviving listing count, kept-per-month versus renting, keep ratio, rank, Foothold score, and three sub-pillar scores (entry, cashflow, durability). Metros that did not clear the metro-level affordability test have null rank and score fields but keep their listing-level stats, so the file also works as a broader 83-metro pricing reference. Sources: listings from Realtor.com; rents from HUD Small Area Fair Market Rents FY2026; vacancy and income from the US Census American Community Survey 2023; crime from FBI Table 8 and CrimeGrade; home value trend from the Zillow Home Value Index; FHA limits from HUD CY2026; mortgage rate 6.66% from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending 30 July 2026. Two files: vantovault-foothold-metros.csv and vantovault-foothold-metros.json (identical data, 83 rows). Maintained at Van to Vault, where the methodology and a readable version live: https://vantovault.com/library/foothold-score/ License: CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Van to Vault (vantovault.com).