Best Cities To Buy A Home Forbes.com

Lots To Like In The Lone-Star State Texas dominated our lineup of mortgage-worthy areas. Thanks to a business-friendly tax environment, many large corporations call the Lone Star State home, which creates jobs and tax revenue.

The University of Texas campus provides young blood and research-related jobs to No. 2 city Austin. This state capitol is a hip area on the rise. The vacancy rate has fallen by 37.5% in the last 24 months to just 1.5%, despite a lot of building in recent years.

And buying isn't much more expensive than renting. An average mortgage payment is $1,022.40, and average rent hits $767.

San Antonio, No. 5, and Dallas, No. 6, made the list thanks to affordable housing, which continues to appreciate. In both cities, the median home price hovers around $150,000, and a monthly mortgage payment of around $800 is pretty close to what one pays in rent. If you can pony up the down payment, these are great areas to live!

DALLAS NAMED 3rd in U.S. for REAL ESTATE INVESTING

HomeVestors of America Inc., a home buyer and proprietor of the "We Buy Ugly Houses" advertising campaign, has named Dallas the third best market in the United States for real estate investors.

"It was an ugly year for residential real estate, creating record-setting demand for" home investors, said John Hayes, president and CEO of HomeVestors of America Inc., in a news release. "We generated more than 200,000 opportunities for our franchisees to buy houses in 2007, and we expect even more opportunities next year. Despite changes in the market, real estate investing continues to grow."

Other Texas cities that made the list include Houston at No. 1, Fort Worth at No. 6, and San Antonio at No. 7.

Again, eventhough we do not have the appreciation like the East and West coast, we sure have made a point that we have steady and stable appreciation. Hooray for D town.!

Web site: www.homevestors.com