America's Most Lucrative Neighborhoods!

There are a wide range of reasons for neighborhoods to explode in value. Sometimes it's as simple as catching the overflow from the city's larger real estate boom. Other times, it can come from a dramatic reduction in crime, the resolution of a local financial crisis or government rezoning and infrastructure development. In order to find such markets, Forbes.com compiled post-1990 price appreciation data from NeighborhoodScout.com, a Rhode Island-based real estate research firm that tracks these numbers by aggregating repeat home sales and price data from the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as quarterly mortgage data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Here, then, are the five most lucrative neighborhoods in America:

Miami

Most Lucrative Neighborhood:
Miami Beach (City Center)
2006 Median Home Sale Price: $1.64 million
Price Growth Since 1990: 1532%
Views of both the interior waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, plus scads of mega-mansions, built with docks to take advantage of the protected inlet, have helped make price appreciation in this section of Miami Beach among the fastest in the nation.

Los Angeles

Most Lucrative Neighborhood:
Ohio And Westgate Avenues
2006 Median Home Sale Price: $2.47 million
Price Growth Since 1990: 3081 percent
Twenty years ago, few desired this beachside neighborhood, not far from what were then rougher parts of Venice. But areas close to California's beaches have since become more sought-after.

Washington, D.C.

Most Lucrative Neighborhood:
Rosslyn/Highlands
2006 Median Home Sale Price: $1.41 million
Price Growth Since 1990: 566 percent
Rising home prices in this area, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., are the result of local economic growth and an influx of buyers priced out of Georgetown and the Palisades.

New York

Most Lucrative Neighborhood:
Riverside Drive And 149th Street
2006 Median Home Sale Price: $774,708
Price Growth Since 1990: 4,391 percent
Back in 1990, there were very few New Yorkers who would have paid six figures for a property as far uptown as 149th Street -- not so today.

San Francisco

Most Lucrative Neighborhood:
Grove And Webster Streets
2006 Median Home Sale Price: $1.38 million
Price Growth Since 1990: 522 percent
Prices in the City by the Bay are high, and are among the fastest-growing in the country

Interestingly, in data compiled by Fortune Magazine, a list was created of the American neighborhoods most likely to experience a drastic decline over the next five years.

And, on that list? Both Miami and East Bay, Calif.; numbers 1 and 5 respectively on the Forbes list.

No wonder American homebuyers are feeling hopelessly confused!

Just over a year and a half ago, they were astounded to see the Colonial their neighbors bought for $600,000 in 2000 sell for $1.5 million - after multiple bids.

Now, they're just as bewildered to watch the same model across the street sit idle for months at the asking price of $1.1 million.

In these confusing times, it's important to have the experience and knowledge of a professional REALTOR to help buyers and sellers traverse the sometimes murky waters of today's homebuying market.