From the full article on Forbes.com:

To find cities that offer the most bang for the buck, we looked at the country’s 100 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas — geographical entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, for use in collecting statistics across these measures:  foreclosures as a percentage of home prices; vacancies; unemployment rates; three-year job growth forecast; a three-year home-price forecast; housing affordability; median real estate taxes; and median travel time to work.

Omaha topped this list in addition to being named the city best surviving the recession.

If I were a betting man, I would bet that Omaha will be among the first to emerge [from the recession].

- The Brookings Institute’s Alan Berube in the North Platte Telegraph

BusinessWeek – Local residents joke about the real estate market in Omaha.  “We didn’t get invited to the party,” they say, “and we don’t have a hangover.”  The proof:  Prices slipped less than 1% in Nebraska’s biggest city last year, compared with an 18% drop for the U.S.

Now Omaha looks poised to tromp the U.S. on the upside.  While responsible lending practices and a dearth of speculation have supported the market in recent years, jobs will make all the difference in the future.  Unemployment in Omaha hovers around 4%, less than half the national average.  Last year Omaha added 2,700 new jobs as the U.S. lost 3 million.  The continued strong prospects for job growth in Omaha means prices should rise faster than the U.S. average.

Meanwhile, high-tech companies are flocking to the Omaha area, which boasts an abundance of land and power, an extensive fiber-optic network, and a favorable tax regime.