Minnesota

Worst: Savage
2008 price change: -12.22%
Five-year price change: -0.59%
Median home value: $235,595
Population: 27,292

This suburban city about 15 miles southwest of Minneapolis was once a shipbuilding port for the U.S. Navy and nowadays is an industrial manufacturing job center, though the city is still relatively rural and encompasses sections of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

Best: Duluth (pictured)
2008 price change: 5.63%
Five-year price change: 2.04%
Median home value: $160,792
Population: 84,167

The fourth-largest city in Minnesota, the port city of Duluth forms a metropolitan area with Superior, Wis. Both have the so-called Twin Ports, arguably the most important ports on the Great Lakes for shipping coal, iron ore, and grain.