With help from the American Planning Association, Forbes hand-picked 10 neighborhoods once down on their luck where money, politics, and time have successfully transformed the areas into bona fide hot spots.
In Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County Land Bank, which started two years ago, buys dilapidated houses and tears them down to remove eyesores from otherwise stable streets.
The National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sales Index declined 1.3 percent to 89.7 in July, but is 14.4 percent above the July 2010 index, according to data released this morning.
Foreclosures made up roughly one-third of all home sales this spring. While that's a smaller share of sales from the previous quarter, it's six times the percentage of foreclosures in a healthy housing market.
Multifamily rentals are still booming, with apartment landlords among the only commercial property owners able to sign new tenants amid the sluggish economy.
According to John Burns Real Estate Consulting, housing prices are returning to conditions of earlier years in some parts of the country, including Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Oakland.
Toll Brothers' fiscal third-quarter earnings jumped 54 percent with a boost from a bigger tax benefit, but the home builder saw a double-digit drop in revenue as home deliveries fell.