'Smart cities' are real estate gold

'Tis the season for predictions about 2012. When it comes to the housing market experts are predicting a stronger year. But where will the recovery come from? Reuters has one real estate expert's prediction:

"Smart cities are hot," [Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia.com, a real estate search and research website,] said in his annual forecast, highlighting Austin, Houston, San Jose, Boston and Rochester, New York, as cities where home prices can be expected to see modest to healthy increases.

In this case, Kolko is referring to "smart cities" as cities that attract high-skill workers. He explained why he choose the five cities referred to above to see a housing rebound this year, at Huffington Post:

What do these markets have in common? Three -- Austin, San Jose, and the area west of Boston -- are technology centers. In those three metros, as well as in Rochester, a center of high-skill manufacturing industries, education levels are well above the national average. As the recovery proceeds, smart cities are leading the way. During the housing boom, the go-to cities tended to be lower-skill, lower-education metros. But in 2012, smart is hot: it'll be the revenge of the nerds.

Photo: Shawn Thomas/Flickr

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com