Buying your first home can be an intimidating proposition, particularly in high-cost, high-density cities and regions. Where in the United States do first-time homebuyers stand the best chance of success — and serenity? Smartasset.com pulled together a list of the 25 best cities for first-time homebuyers in 2017.

The personal finance site compiled data for every city with more than 300,000 residents (64 cities in all) and then ranked them according to seven metrics: number of mortgage lenders, value per square foot, loan-funding rate, affordability ratio, market volatility, number of negative quarters since 2011 and homeowner stability index. After ranking each city, Smartasset.com averaged the ranking (giving full weight to each factor). It then created and index, with the top city scoring 100 and the bottom city scoring 0.

CNBC.com shares the Top 10 (actually 11, due to one tie) cities in the Smartasset.com ranking — along with five of the relevant metrics plus index score for each — in the following slides.

— By CNBC.com's Kenneth Kiesnoski
Posted 11 April 2017

Source: Smartasset.com

No. of mortgage lenders: 35
Loan-financing rate: 78 percent
Avg. value per sq. ft: $85.83
Market volatility: 2.4 percent
Negative quarters since 2011: 11

Index score: 70.08

Source: Smartasset.com

No. of mortgage lenders: 72
Loan-financing rate: 75 percent
Avg. value per sq. ft: $87.92
Market volatility: 2.3 percent
Negative quarters since 2011: 5

Index score: 70.08

Source: Smartasset.com

No. of mortgage lenders: 485
Loan-financing rate: 74 percent
Avg. value per sq. ft: $86.33
Market volatility: 4.1 percent
Negative quarters since 2011: 5

Index score: 70.87

Source: Smartasset.com

No. of mortgage lenders: 85
Loan-financing rate: 78 percent
Avg. value per sq. ft: $124.92
Market volatility: 3.7 percent
Negative quarters since 2011: 5

Index score: 72.05

Source: Smartasset.com

No. of mortgage lenders: 204
Loan-financing rate: 69 percent
Avg. value per sq. ft: $87.50
Market volatility: 4.1 percent
Negative quarters since 2011: 11

Index score: 73.23

Source: Smartasset.com

No. of mortgage lenders: 125
Loan-financing rate: 63 percent
Avg. value per sq. ft: $80.50
Market volatility: 3 percent
Negative quarters since 2011: 3

Index score: 77.56

Source: Smartasset.com

No. of mortgage lenders: 51
Loan-financing rate: 74 percent
Avg. value per sq. ft: $71.83
Market volatility: 2.4 percent
Negative quarters since 2011: 5

Index score: 79.92

Source: Smartasset.com

No. of mortgage lenders: 73
Loan-financing rate: 778 percent
Avg. value per sq. ft: $70.58
Market volatility: 2.3 percent
Negative quarters since 2011: 5

Index score: 82.68

Source: Smartasset.com

No. of mortgage lenders: 56
Loan-financing rate:84 percent
Avg. value per sq. ft: $107.08
Market volatility: 2.1 percent
Negative quarters since 2011: 5

Index score: 87.01

Source: Smartasset.com

No. of mortgage lenders: 83
Loan-financing rate: 75 percent
Avg. value per sq. ft: $77.67
Market volatility: 2.1 percent
Negative quarters since 2011: 4

Index score: 91.34

Source: Smartasset.com

No. of mortgage lenders: 35
Loan-financing rate: 79 percent
Avg. value per sq. ft: $82.08
Market volatility: 1.4 percent
Negative quarters since 2011: 0

Index score: 100.00

Source: Smartasset.com