Metro: Gainesville (Ga.) Share of homes with increasing values: 46.63% Median value: $139,100 Annual change: 4.18% Quarterly change: 4.50% Gainesville, located on the shores of Lake Lanier about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta and 40 miles northwest of Athens, is known as the chicken capital of the world and even has a statue of a […]
Category Archives: Housing Markets
Where Homes Prices Are Rising
The drama is nearly over. After a decade of extremes—the ebullient highs of the real estate boom, then the devastating lows of the bust—calmer forces are beginning to prevail in the housing market. The big fall-off in home values, which has taken the median price of a house down almost 30% since 2006, looks to […]
Rank: 2
Metro: Spartanburg (S.C.) Share of homes with increasing values: 56.81% Median value: $106,900 Annual change: 1.81% Quarterly change: 2.15% Spartanburg, about 75 miles west of Charlotte, is home to the world headquarters of Denny’s restaurant chain and three colleges—Converse College, Spartanburg Methodist College, and Wofford College. It has the state’s highest per capita college student […]
Towns where land is still free in the U.S.
As small towns suffer from a continuing flight from rural toward-more urban living, some economic development groups and governments in these troubled areas have chosen to stay and fight. The Homestead Act of 1862 is no longer in effect, but free land is still available out there in the great wide open (often literally in […]
The 30 Strongest Housing Markets in the U.S
Wait a second. At a time when real estate prices have been in almost perpetual free fall for more than a year, are there really places around the U.S. where home values are going up? Unbelievable as it may sound, yes. According to real estate site Zillow.com’s second-quarter home value index, there are more than […]
Cities Weigh Chapter 9
Just days after becoming controller of financially strapped Harrisburg, Pa., in January, Daniel Miller began uttering an obscure term that baffled most people who had never heard it and chilled those who had: Chapter 9. The seldom-used part of U.S. bankruptcy law gives municipalities protection from creditors while developing a plan to pay off debts. […]
10 Home Buyer Mistakes to Avoid
It was supposed to be a momentous occasion for Brian, who was about to close on his first home. But after signing a thick stack of documents–and taking part in the ceremonious passing of the keys–something felt off for the then 26-year-old Montgomery County, Md., resident. There wasn’t even a chilled bottle of bubbly or […]
Rank: 1
Metro: Boulder (Colo.) Share of homes with increasing values: 59.39% Median value: $347,200 Annual change: 2.12% Quarterly change: 3.86% Boulder, about 35 miles northwest of Denver, has had a relatively stable housing market, in part, because it is home to strong employers, including the University of Colorado, as well as a base of affluent residents. […]