5 Undervalued Markets With Room to Grow

Daily Real Estate News

Looking for a housing bargain? Forbes magazine has identified five cities where the economy is roaring but home prices are still moderate.

These cities are:

Charlotte, N.C. Forbes says this is one of the cheapest markets in the country on a per-square-foot basis. Financial services jobs are expanding rapidly and nonfinancial job growth isn’t heavily tied to housing production. A typical four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home on a quarter of an acre is selling for about $550,000.

San Francisco. The technology and biotech sectors of the economy in the Bay Area continue to grow and there is no build up of housing inventory here. A typical four-bedroom, two-bath home sells for about $800,000.

Seattle. Seattle missed the condo boom because multi-family residential construction was slow in Seattle in 2002 and 2003. Now, Seattle condo real estate values are climbing at the fastest pace of any condo market in the country, according to Radar Logic, a real estate research firm. An attractive two-bedroom, two-bath, downtown condo property with panoramic views of the city and Elliott Bay is selling for about $1 million.

Boston. The housing market in the trendy Back Bay has slowed, while Boston’s downtown and waterfront areas are attracting buyers interested in living near its booming tech businesses. A one-bedroom, one-bath condo with a view of Boston Harbor sells for less than $650,000.

New York City. The best place to buy in the nation’s most developed and densest real estate market is in the Financial District where the market is being flooded with residential housing and the neighborhood is transforming from a 9 to 5 area to a 24-hour residential area. A condo in a pre-World War I building with two bedrooms and one bath in the Financial District is selling for about $750,000.

Source: Forbes, Matt Woolsey (11/13/07)