Colorado's best cities for first-time home buyers may surprise you.

Buying your first home is a major life milestone for many Americans, one that is not taken lightly, and that can take years of hard work, building up credit, and saving a down payment. The process has many steps and is an emotional and financial decision that is not taken lightly. There are some places in the country that are friendlier to first-time home buyers than others, and the location is a huge factor when deciding where to buy a home.

WalletHub did some research into what cities in the United States are the best for first-time home buyers and surveyed 300 cities. According to their research, in 2018, 39 percent of single-family home purchases were first-time home buyers.

WalletHub used 27 indicators of market attractiveness to rate the cities; affordability, quality of life, real estate taxes, property crime rates, energy costs, rent to price ratio, and more. In this study, a large city consists of 300,000 or more people, mid-size cities have 150,000-300,000 people, and small cities have fewer than 150,000 people.

In the small cities category, Colorado took the top four spots: Thornton at No. 1, Greeley at No. 2, Arvada at No. 3, and Centennial at No. 4. Nationwide Colorado took four of the top ten spots. Thornton came in at No. 3 in the nation, Greeley came in at No. 6, Arvada at No. 8, and Centennial at No. 10.

Colorado Springs came in at No. 2 for large cities, and at No. 24 overall.

Here are the overall rankings of Colorado’s cities for first-time home buyers on the national list from the cities surveyed by WalletHub.

Best Cities for First-Time Home Buyers in Colorado:

Thornton – No. 3 overall, No. 1 for small cities
Greeley – No. 6 overall, No. 2 for small cities
Arvada – No. 8 overall, No. 3 for small cities
Centennial – No. 10 overall, No. 4 for small cities
Westminster – No. 23 overall, No. 10 for small cities
Colorado Springs – No. 24 overall, No. 2 for large cities
Longmont – No. 26 overall, No. 11 small cities
Pueblo – No. 34 overall, No. 16 for small cities
Fort Collins – No. 35 overall, No. 16 for mid-size cities
Denver – No. 48 overall, No. 8 for large cities
Aurora – No. 66 overall, No. 12 large cities 
Lakewood – No. 84 overall, No. 31 for mid-size cities
Boulder – No. 249 overall, No. 112 for small cities

Additionally, Colorado Springs and Denver had some of the lowest real estate tax rates on the list, coming in at No. 3 and 5, respectively. Aurora, Arvada, Thornton, and Centennial were also listed in the category of cities that has the lowest home energy costs.

Colorado had a large presence on the list, which might add to the large number of people moving to the state, as well as the very competitive real estate market the state has seen for the last few years.

You can view WalletHub's full list here to see how they used the different data and other factors to rank each city on the list.

What do you think about WalletHub’s list? Are there any cities that you think should have been mentioned that were left out? Let us know your thoughts and any advice you have for first-time home buyers in the comments below.