Best cities to buy a home in 2012
Zillow analyzed income and home-price data to come up with a list of cities where now is a good time to buy. We've also got a lot of cities where it's still a buyers market.
This year's mixed real-estate statistics serve to remind us that, yes, all real estate is local.
Former basket-case cities such as Phoenix and Miami are rising from the ashes, while cities such as Atlanta that initially didn't suffer precipitous drops in property values are continuing to see home prices drop.
Zillow looked at several key factors and came up with a list of the places to buy a home in 2012, plus a list of the cities where you can afford to bargain.
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To create its list, the real-estate portal looked at housing prices compared with local incomes, home value trends, unemployment rates and whether buying makes more sense than renting.
The top city in Zillow's Best Places to Buy in 2012 was Grand Rapids, Mich., where home values have risen 4.8% since last spring and unemployment has fallen. The median home value in Grand Rapids is $108,000, making homes affordable on the city's median income.
The next two cities were Phoenix, where Zillow predicts home values will rise 6.5% this year, and Pittsburgh. "Phoenix is probably the best example of a hard-hit market that is showing signs of recovery," says Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist.
The other cities identified as the best places to buy in 2012 were:
- Oklahoma City
- Rochester, N.Y.
- Dallas
- Memphis, Tenn
- Dayton, Ohio
To identify the cities where buyers have the upper hand, Zillow looked at listings with price cuts, median price cuts, foreclosure resales and the difference between list price and sale price.
These are the cities where you are likely to benefit from negotiating on price, but remember that these are averages and that any individual home could be well-priced at listing. Zillow's Best Places to Bargain for a Home are:
- Rockford, Ill.
- Punta Gorda, Fla.
- Cleveland
- Chicago
- Sarasota, Fla.
- New Haven, Conn.
- Philadelphia
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Billings, MT - maybe lost 5% during the whole crisis and has gained it back in the past year. Home builders are going full tilt again. A great place to live and work. My home is worth double what I paid for it in 2000. Not the greatest investment, but could have been worse. My ex wife took a bath on the two homes she owned in the Sacramento area, hope she recovers.
Aralee H,
We're an entitlement society? Gee, I honestly don't see much of that, but there sure is a lot of poverty and homelessness. Unless you're talking about Social Security and Medicare, which help the middle class stay strong and the country from gradually degenerating into a third world people. In general though, there's FAR less of that kind of thing here than in most other civilized western nations. Yes, even with "Obamacare", which is not very socialistic at all, in fact it benefits the industries as well as the people.
But that's all missing the point- which is that your FOX News or whatever "entitlement society" meme isn't even the real problem.
Sounds like you've been herded into the wrong pasture. God help us all if a majority of voters still don't "get it" in November. A little clue, though, hard as it may be for you brainwashed ones to believe, but Obama and the Dems ain't the problem.
Well, I truly hope that everyone in America is happy as the proverbial pigs in **** (translated: Hedonists left over from the Ronald Reagan Era - kids and grandkids included).
Now that said, here's what I have to say. Firstly, I doubt if there is anything in America that I would really want. Having spent my adult years (age 35-69) with my nose day and most of the night in an American History book, all written by TRUTH TELLING Ivy League historians (got my Ph.D. in Biochemistry, my day job), I can safely say three words that I actually mean: PISS ON AMERICA.
You all can have it. I plan to take my computer and give it away tomorrow morning. My TV went years ago. And, I haven't read a newspaper since circa 1975.
No spelling errors found.
do yourself a great favor and dont move to florida the housing market may be cheap but in the end you will pay for it with the hoa fees as well as the headaches of the housing value. living here in florida is garbage this is my last year here and me and my family is packing up and moving out of this hell hole state there is not one part of this state that is doing any better then the next part of florida the housing market here is not gonna bounceback no time soon!!!!
About Teresa Mears
Teresa Mears is a veteran journalist who has been interested in houses since her father took her to tax auctions to carry the cash at age 10. A former editor of The Miami Herald's Home & Design section, she lives in South Florida where, in addition to writing about real estate, she publishes Miami on the Cheap to help her neighbors adjust to the loss of 60% of their property value.
msn real estate is social
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