A good market?

[Craig C.]

Hello BP!

I've got another question, which summed up is: How do you decipher if there is a good market in an area?

My hometown is kind of a ghost-town that has taxed itself to death, so I've been looking at my neighboring towns/cities. My neighboring town has alot of real estate for sale, but from what I have seen in this city, there's alot of houses for sale, more than a fair share of slums, duplexes and other properties of the like so I am a little leary of trying to do business there. But the flipside is, it looks like there's a positive population increase of 9% since 2000...

Should I be leary? Or am I doing this all wrong?