The Texas coastal cities of Beaumont and Port Arthur top the list of real estate markets expected to perform the strongest during the next year, according to research released by Veros Real Estate Solutions. Markets in Nevada and Florida, on the other hand, filled the bottom spaces. The real estate market in the Beaumont/Port Arthur region, located about 20 miles apart, is expected to improve 5%. Boulder, Colo., Amarillo, Texas, each with projected 5% improvements, and San Diego and Charleston, WV, with 4% projected increases, round out the top five strongest markets. “The majority of top-performing markets from September 2009 to September 2010 are still forecast to be in Great Plains area with many good markets in Texas,” said Eric Fox, vice president of technology at Veros. “Coastal California markets are forecast to wake up as well and begin appreciating. This is in addition to markets we previously identified [in April 2009] as waking up, including San Diego, Boston and Denver.” Veros projects the bottom five markets will all be in Nevada or Florida during the next year. Reno, Nev. will experience a 12% decrease and tops Veros’ list of worst performing markets. Las Vegas is not far behind with a projected 11% decrease, followed by the Palm Bay/Melbourne/Titusville, Fla. region (10% decline), Port St. Lucie/Fort Pierce, Fla. (9% decline) and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale/Miami Beach region (9% decline). Veros uses its analytics software to calculate its projections, comparing factors including interest and unemployment rates, inflation, and housing inventory levels. Write to Austin Kilgore.

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