A Suburb Set For A Real Estate Revival?

The crash in the housing market was the beginning of the economic downturn.

But now some experts believe we're seeing the first signs of a real estate revival. Home prices in one Virginia suburb of Washington, DC have fallen so far, there seems nowhere to go but up, reports CBS news correspondent Thalia Assuras.

Susan Jacobs is a real estate agent in Manassas County, Virginia with more than 20 years experience.

Most of the houses she's showing these days belong to banks - foreclosure properties on the market for bargain basement prices.

She shows a large house that she plans to put on the market for somewhere between $60,000 and $70,000.

The price of that same house a few years ago?

"In '05 or '06 this property could have sold for $300 [thousand]," Jacobs says.

Since Manassas is only 35 miles from DC and is served by regional rail, it's a commuter's haven. There are almost 3,000 houses currently on the market and at least 60 percent of them are foreclosures.

They were owned by people who got easy credit and were able to buy them, even at inflated prices. Then the housing market dropped.

In 2005 there were just two foreclosures in the city of Manassas. in 2007, 313. And in 2008, a whopping 922. Ninety-two percent of real estate sales in Manassas last year were bank sales.

That means opportunity for some people, like Brandon Hughes, who snapped up a four bedroom house for $135,000.

A few years ago his house would have cost "$300, $350,000," Hughes says. "I thought I would never buy a house. It was way out of my price range."

So is Manassas at the forefront of a housing turn-around? Ranny Isenberg, a local home appraiser, thinks so.

"Rreal estate's on sale. And i don't think it is going to get any cheaper," he says. "And for someone who is investing it is instant money."

Many investors are buying properties that they can then rent out at a profit.

"If the mortgage on this was, we'll say, $650 a month, more than likely they are going to rent if for $800, maybe $900," Jacobs says. "This one they could probably rent for $900 because cause it is a three-level."

In other words, somebody is going to make a big profit.

Buying low - if enough people keep doing it, then hard-hit Manassas might help lead the way up and out of the housing sinkhole.