hmmm. i thought las vegas was the fastest growing city in us for like 5 straight years.

sweet. Detroit. and every city w/in 100 miles of it. oh wait. how about all of Michigan. *sigh*... stupid manufacturing-based economy.

Stupid North American Free Trade Agreement!

Yes, Michigan... Don't forget the IT--oh, that was off-shored.

Of course education is the solution...guess we need grad degrees to compete w/ other countries?

You wouldn't believe just *how* bad the housing market is in Detroit. Craigslist regularly has "fixer upper specials" for around $3k: [detroit.craigslist.org]

Florida should pick up some as soon as all the baby boomers retire in the next 5 years or so...

That is the problem with unsustainable growth, it isn't sustainable. Phoenix has been near the top of fast growth cities. I don't know what it will take for people to realize that a desert can't support that amount of life.

LA is mixed as it is just so vast.

We moved to Vegas in 2003. At that time, you could get a 4 bedroom, 2 bath in Summerlin for around $275-300k. 8 months later, the same house was $425k and going up. Unfortunately, we didn't buy a house in Vegas while the prices were "low" because we couldn't get our house sold back home. Fortunately, we were transferred back to Indy after a year and 1/2. But I still miss living in Vegas...

Weakest markets or most overhyped markets as of a year ago? Obviously, DTW has its own problems aside from the rest of the group, but all of the other cities were where we kept seeing stories from people about how much money can be made just by owning houses in these areas..;

Glad to see my hometown of Riverside is doing swell... :-/

CRNK is right. I live in Tampa and it's not that hard to sell a house if you're not asking some assinine price. When I bought my house 3 years ago I paid $150k. Not too long ago 3 houses on the block sold for 225k, 265k and 310k. None of those houses are any larger or have more features. Two of them didn't have pools. There's a few other homes in the area that are also for sale and they're asking for even more. The hype is just silly.

Woo-hoo! Detroit's number one!

My folks had to sell their house in the suburbs about two years ago. It was on the market for almost 3 years before it sold. it's rough out here, but at least there's a tonne of affordable rental property now.

g3

great, my bf (who might move up here to live with me) is in FLL. Fantastic. Lovely.

Good thing I own my place outright and we might be able to rent his...

Yay Florida!

Should I be happy or sad that I'm moving back to Miami in the coming weeks?

I can't imagine why anyone would have trouble selling a home in Detroit. Just burn it to the ground and it will fit in with the rest of the neighborhood.

Wait. People pay to live in Riverside?!

I can't believe Los Angeles isn't number 1. I have about 5 stressed-out neighbors trying to sell homes here in Santa Monica, they've all been on the market > 6 mos (!!!) and they've dropped prices by at least 20%.

L.A. has an EXTREMELY high number of people who got "easy money" loans -- I think it's gonna be a bloodbath and by sometime in 2009 the entire market will be deflated by at least a third.

@krylonultraflat:happy, you're not trying to sell anything.

@BrianH: God I hope so hen maybe I could actually look at buying a house. One of my friends just spent a little over 500k for a freakin townhouse. 2 bdr 2 bath postage stamp back yard...

DETROIT! DETROIT!

I hope to buy a house in the next two years... this may be very good for me. As for Phoenix, I love that the land has gotten so expensive in the city centers that they are now building UP. It's about damn time!

I rent in LA because housing is so expensive.

...I'm just biding my time now.

:D

Yes! We're trying to buy in Miami!! I'd think it's good but lots of people selling are probably still hoping to not lose money on their houses. There are at least ten pretty nice houses for sale in the immediate four blocks, but none of them are worth what the current owners paid for them two years ago. Losers!

Thank you Global Sourcing. When will we as a country recognize that we can't have our cake and eat it too. I look forward to a miserable few years for my 401(k)... I hope it is only a few years...

Oh, good! I'm still wanting to sell my house. Did I mention I live north of Tampa and west of Orlando? Yeah. Great. Heh...

Why does it not surprise me that my state occupies four of the top ten spots? I'd like to blame this on The Mouse and condominium developers.

Why be negative? Why not title the article the 10 Best Housing Markets for Buyers? (Except for Detroit ... who the hell wants to live in Detroit? Or come to think of it, California?)

When they say Detroit, they should really mean metro Detroit, or the entire southeastern part of the state. No one can sell their houses here, not even in the quaint (and very safe!) suburbs. Its going to start getting pretty desperate here pretty soon. God bless the murder mitten.

@vanilla-fro: & @ltlbbynthn:

Of course, I just remembered that the problem with buying a home in Miami is that you will always be competing with affluent individuals from South America looking for a vacation home/nest egg/house for a family member. With both the dollar and the housing market in the toilet, the time has never been better for them to invest in American real estate.

Useless anecdotal evidence: I rode a bus from D.C. to NYC with an Argentinian who had 3 close family members who owned property in South Florida. I think I talked him into buying a condo in downtown.

I assume this chart takes the condo market into consideration as well? If it does, I'm surprised Miami didn't rank higher.