Homes from the fastest- and slowest-growing markets

Median home price: $118,000
This home's price: $119,000
Bedrooms: 3
Baths: 2
Square footage: 1,450

Details: Scranton is a small old, industrial city in northeastern Pennsylvania. Housing prices, depressed for years, have started to move up thanks to what broker Robert Vanston calls "one of the best mayors we've had in a long time."

According to Vanston, the city is cleaning up blighted neighborhoods and turning vacant homes into empty lots.

Also helping to prop up prices for homes like this in-town, pre-war clapboard are an economic revival driven by nearby ski resort, Montage Mountain, an expansion of the University of Scranton, and buyers from northern New Jersey and New York City who are attracted by the area's bargain basement prices.

Brokerage: Prudential Preferred Properties - Robert Vanston