FOR SALE: 1001 Apples Mill Road, West Newton, Pa 15089
$262,500.

The best place to buy right now: Pittsburgh. For a housing market to be attractive it should have appreciating prices that show homeowners are making wise investments; an affordability rating that gives middle-class families with good credit entry into the market; and a relatively low number of foreclosures, which keeps prices stable and indicates there isn't an excess of inventory.
Pittsburgh has all three. In the metro area, 85% of homes are affordable to those making the median family income of $62,500. At the same time, foreclosures are low: Only one home is in foreclosure for every 120 housing units--the second-best record of all the cities we ranked; and home prices are expected to increase 2.67% by the end of the year.
Yes, the city has suffered greatly since the decline of its manufacturing-dependent economy. But that slump helped its real estate market dodge the rapid run-up in prices that doomed so many markets after the housing boom.
"Manufacturing cities like Pittsburgh have suffered so much for the last two, three, four years that there's still a population base in that region, and now those areas are sort of attractive," says James P. Gaines, research economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "Home prices are so low, some service-level jobs can be created, so it's not surprising perhaps that there's been a revitalization of some of those communities."