Low-Risk Real Estate Cities

photo credit: faeryboots

Amongst all the bad news, it’s good to know that there are still areas around the United States where house prices haven’t taken such a beating. A Smart Money survey recently summarized seven cities where the real estate market is looking reasonably healthy:

1. Seattle - helped by its low unemployment, partly due to having strong employers like Boeing, Amazon and Microsoft located in the area.
2. Des Moines - suffered through a real estate bubble in the 80s, and diversified its economy which stood it in good stead for this crisis.
3. Raleigh - had job growth during the slump thanks to a lot of high tech companies moving into its Research Triangle.
4. Salt Lake City - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints helps out here by providing a lot of steady employment; but in general it’s a diverse, “pro-business” city.
5. Philadelphia - house prices here didn’t soar high but had just a steady growth, so now they haven’t fallen far.
6. Birmingham - plenty of strong employers here (including Mercedes and Honda plants, and a large university) have kept the economy here relatively stable and house prices have followed.
7. Denver - like Des Moines, already suffered a bust so the economy wasn’t ready to go wild; that’s kept things relatively stable and the housing market is already acting at a level many experts consider normal.