Residents in smaller, outlier cities overwhelmingly have the highest credit scores in the United States, according to a new report from LendEDU [1] that measured scores across more than 1,000 cities.
The report found that as far as major U.S. metros go, residents in Littleton, Colorado; San Francisco; and Seattle have the highest credit scores in the country. But Littleton (Denver), though first in major metros, with an average credit rating of 745, actually came in 255th place on the listings of the 500 cities with the best scores.
The top city for high credit scores was The Villages, Fla., where residents averaged a score of 804. The runners-up were Sun City West and Green Valley, Arizona, which posted average credit scores of 789 and 780, respectively.
Orland Park, Ill., ranked 102nd, was the first city on the list to have an average credit score below 750 (it was 749). From this point, the remainder of the top 500 cities featured scores in the 730s and 740s. Twelve cities, from Portsmouth, N.H., to thousand oaks, Calif., tied for an average score of 731.
In the major cities, Littleton’s 745 was the only city above 740. San Francisco’s 732 was the only other score above 730. Seattle and Plano, Texas, posted average credit scores of 722 and 720, respectively. St. Paul and Honolulu tied for fifth among major cities with an average credit score of 718.
At the other end of credit ratings, Camden, N.J., had the lowest average credit score, with 547. Pinon, Arizpna, was a close second with 549. The first 43 markets in the lowest-scores rankings featured average credit scores below 600. None of the lowest 100 cities featured scores that reached 620.
Among major U.S. cities, Detroit fared worst. Average credit scores in the Motor City were 565. Detroit was the only major U.S. city to feature a score below 600. Memphis and Baltimore posted scores of 607 and 621, respectively. Philadelphia and Dallas rounded out the bottom five major metros, with average scores of 632 and 633, respectively. Dallas’ neighbor, Fort Worth, tied for sixth (with Bronx), with an average credit score of 636.