Mississippi

wikipedia.org/Roy Adkins

Mississippi

Metro: Jackson
What a Home Will Be Worth in 2012: $139,832
Q4 2008 price: $135,000
Projected price change by MSA: +3.6%
Projected price change by state: +2.5%

Jackson, the state capital, was a center of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Today it has strong technology and health-care sectors and diverse cultural and educational attractions, including the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, which has a 1,700-square-foot greenhouse known as "the swamp" stocked with live turtles, fish, and alligators.