Finding affordable homes

Many signs indicate that the housing market is cooling down -- at least in my area. If someone wants to buy a house now, where are good places to shop for affordable homes? Peter Coy at BusinessWeek believes that if you don't mind long commute, or can telecommunte, then mid-size and small-size cities are good candidates.

I think there is a downside to buying homes in those less demanding areas. If the market cools down, housing prices in the high demand areas will become more affordable. These are the places with most job opportunities and well developed community facilities. If people have the money to buy houses, they probably will first snatch up homes in the high demand area first before they look for homes in the less desirable mid-size or small-size cities.

Buying homes are kind of playing Monopoly, I think. When playing Monopoly, while you can buy different kinds of properties and build as many hotels as you want, but there are only few properties can generate extremely high returns. Typically these properties are the most expensive properties on the board.

Location! Location! Location!