Top 10 Great Deals on Great Towns in America's Biggest Metro Areas for 2004

by sir13eck bytech

WOONSOCKET, RI (May 13, 2004) - In every hot metropolitan area there are hidden bargain neighborhoods that offer quality without the high prices. Finding these hidden gems can be a challenge, but you can get the inside track on great areas to buy a home by targeting one of America's top 10 undervalued towns.
"Housing prices are at all-time highs in many parts of the country, making house-hunting tough work, and particularly difficult if you are trying to buy into a top-quality community," says Andrew Schiller, president of Location Inc. "Undervalued towns can be great places to look because you can buy into a premium neighborhood in any of the nation's biggest metro areas, and still find a surprisingly good deal on a house - even in today's market."

"Undervalued towns are towns with many premium qualities, like good public schools, low crime rates, educated neighborhoods, and owner-occupied single family homes, but where median home prices are surprisingly low compared to similar neighborhoods in the area," says Schiller, a PhD geographer.

Schiller found the top 10 undervalued towns in America's 10 biggest metro areas by using NeighborhoodScout®, a web-based neighborhood search engine he developed that covers all 61,000 neighborhoods in the US.

Homebuyers can try NeighborhoodScout for free at www.neighborhoodscout.com.

"You can find your own great towns by going to the web site and describing your ideal neighborhood, based on your own criteria," says Schiller. "Wherever you want to live, and however much you want to pay, NeighborhoodScout can help you find the right answer."

Here are NeighborhoodScout's top 10 undervalued towns for 2004 (by metro area from east to west):

Metro Region - Top Undervalued Town Boston - Holden, MA New York - East Meadow, NY Philadelphia - Medford, NJ Washington, D.C. - Silver Spring, MD Detroit - Lathrop Village, MI Chicago - Schaumburg, IL Dallas-Fort Worth - Richardson, TX Houston - Sugar Land, TX San Francisco - Antioch, CA Los Angeles - Carson, CA

All the towns are within 40 miles of the center city.

Editor's Note

"Educated neighbors" means people 25 and up with college degrees or graduate degrees. "Excellent public schools" means combined measures of spending per pupil on core instruction, student-to-teacher ratios (smaller classes and more personal attention to students), and graduation rates. "Crime" is all FBI crime index scores - both violent and property - as a rate per 1,000 population for the community. "Owner-occupied" single-family homes mean the neighborhood is primarily composed of detached single-family homes owned by their occupants. Data were derived from the FBI and US Justice Department, the US Bureau of the Census, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, and queried directly with NeighborhoodScout.

About the Author
sir13eck bytech,

Location Inc™ is a Rhode Island-based company born of university research, specializing in nationwide relocation software, retail site selection, and real estate investment advising.