Best Cities For Home Sellers by Forbes
Behind The Numbers
To find the other cities on our list, we looked at the country’s 40 largest metro areas and assessed how friendly conditions are expected to be for sellers this year. Each city was ranked by its 2007 unsold vacancy rate, calculated by the U.S. Census American Housing Survey, and how much the market had tightened or loosened when compared with 2006 conditions.
Then we looked at construction starts, as tracked by the National Association of Home Builders, to see if building starts would compound or alleviate vacancy woes. Next was job creation, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as a way to measure the local economy’s ability to absorb or offset housing losses.
America’s 15 Most Lucrative Neighborhoods
| City and Neighborhood | Price Growth Since 1990 |
| San Francisco, Calif.: Grove And Webster Streets | 522% |
| New York, N.Y.: Riverside Drive And 149th Street | 4,391% |
| Washington, D.C.: Rosslyn/Highlands | 566% |
| Los Angeles, Calif.: Ohio And Westgate Avenues | 3,081 |
| Miami, Fla.: Miami Beach (City Center) | 1,532% |
| Atlanta, Ga.: Memorial Drive And Boulevard Southeast | 430% |
| Detroit, Mich.: John C Lodge Freeway And Clairmount Street | 396% |
| Philadelphia, Pa.: Walnut And Third Streets | 184% |
| Seattle, Wash.: 23rd Avenue And Union Street | 445% |
Top 10 Cash Flow Property Markets by NuWire
1. Rochester, New York
2. Montgomery, Alabama
3. Birmingham, Alabama
4. San Antonio, Texas
5. Garland, Texas
6. Buffalo, New York
7. Corpus Christi, Texas
8. Shreveport, Louisiana
9. Detroit, Michigan
10. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Read NuWire’s “Rankings of the areas with the best potential for cash flow.”
Existing-Home Sales Rise in November, Market Likely Stabilizing
Existing-home sales rose slightly in November, indicating a stabilization in housing in the wake of mortgage disruptions earlier this year, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
Total existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 0.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 5.00 million units in November from an upwardly revised pace of 4.98 million in October, but are 20.0 percent below the 6.25 million-unit level in November 2006.
Home Prices Decline But Not In All Markets
| 12 Month Change By Top 30 CBSAs (Core Based Statistical Areas) | As of October 2007 |
| Honolulu, HI | 17.91% |
| Salt Lake City, UT | 11.63% |
| Austin-Round Rock, TX | 8.62% |
| San Antonio, TX | 7.89% |
| Raleigh-Cary, NC | 4.56% |