Housing Rebounding

SmartMoney magazine says are in line for a rebound:
Seattle
Raleigh
Des Moines
Philadelphia
Denver, Colorado
Birmingham, Ala.
Salt Lake City

The Boom then gloom markets as they call it: Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix.California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. The article states that when you take these states out of the picture things get much more rosier.

According to PMI’s “risk index,” which estimates the odds of prices falling in a given market, at least 65 percent of the nation’s 386 metro areas have less than a 10 percent chance of seeing lower prices two years from now. What’s more, the government’s sweeping bailout of the financial sector could boost the housing market by making borrowing easier for buyers.

25 metropolitan areas that look particularly promising, and there are more than a few surprises.
Seattle

Thanks to Microsoft, Amazon.com and Boeing, unemployment remains under 4 percent. That, in turn, has kept median sales prices from falling far. Only 11.5 percent of local homeowners who bought within the past five years have negative equity on their property, well below the national average of 29%, according to Zillow.

Among Seattle’s neighborhoods and suburbs, yesteryear’s star performers—affluent areas like the Victorian-studded Queen Anne district or Redmond, home of Microsoft—are beginning to slide back a bit. The most resilient part of the region lies across the Duwamish River from downtown, in West Seattle. The small community is directly accessible by only one bridge. That can lead to traffic snarls, but many residents simply bike 20 minutes to jobs downtown. On weekends the relative seclusion means the 2.5-mile Alki Beach promenade along Elliott Bay doesn’t get too crowded. As long as people like great views of water, mountains and city skylines, “those homes will always maintain their value,” says local broker Febe Cude. Dave and Alison Keith recently sold their two-bedroom townhome in West Seattle for $289,000, up more than 25 percent from their purchase price four years ago. They plowed that windfall into a home in the same neighborhood with twice the living space and a fenced-in yard, for $429,000. “You’re always nervous, but I feel like things are holding up well here,” Alison says.

Des Moines