By JAMES THORNER, Times Staff Writer
Published July 25, 2007
The online edition of Forbes magazine, with help from business prognosticator Moody's economy.com, touts the Tampa Bay Florida area as the No. 1 place in the country to buy a house.
Come again? Aren't we supposed to be in the throes of housing agony?
Hear them out: Because of our area's overall strong, growing economy and comparably modest housing prices, Forbes calls Tampa, St.Petersburg, Clearwater a prime bounce-back market.
It predicts our area will experience what it calls a V-shaped recovery, where a market experiences a free fall, but rebounds strongly once it hits bottom.
Other regions will chart U-shaped or L-shaped courses. U-shaped recoveries are those in which prices fall slowly and recover gradually. Think Boston and Sacramento.
The L-shaped phenomenon is when prices plummet but remain mostly in a trough owing to underlying economic problems in the city. Think Detroit.
"While the Tampa Florida market has yet to bottom out, the silver lining for buyers is that it is a highly resilient market," the article says. Forbes also sought areas where prices wouldn't fall cataclysmically, so that buyers wouldn't be booking a fare on a sinking ship.
Fast Facts:
Forbes' Top 10
1. Tampa
2. Minneapolis
3. Miami
4. Kansas City
5. Chicago
6. Phoenix
7. San Diego
8. Milwaukee
9. New York City
10. Atlanta
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