The City the Boom Passed By

The New York Times reports:

TIRED of high real estate prices? Consider the alternative.

"I got that one for six," said Jack Lewis, a real estate investor, pointing to a trim Victorian with steep gables and a front porch.

He means $6,000.

"Around the corner, there's another one I got for three."

In the last decade, while houses in much of the country have appreciated at dizzying rates, Canton's prices have gone the other way; the median price in the metro area dropped 11.3 percent from 2004 to 2005, according to the National Association of Realtors. Houses under $20,000 are common, and even at those prices, they don't always find buyers.

Real estate isn't going up everywhere.