'Today Show' says Denver will be first market to recover

Author and real estate pundit Barbara Corcoran says that cities like Denver, will be the first to bounce back from the housing slump.

"It's really the perfect real estate success story," she said. "It had one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation for years running, and now they've cut that foreclosure rate in half and they've turned the corner."

Here are her top five markets to bounce back:
1. Denver
2. Raleigh, N.C.
3. Austin, Texas
4. Seattle
5. San Francisco

One of Corcoran's books is called "Nextville" and is about where boomers are going to want to spend the latter part of their lives, and not surprisingly, most of these cities would qualify as places that Corcoran might advise retirees to consider.

Seattle and San Francisco are probably the two more surprising cities, as they are still fairly expensive, but obviously very appealing places to live. Raleigh has been a sweetheart city because of its affordability and job growth for the past five years or more.

Corcoran said she included cities on her list on the basis of eight factors:

• Job growth potential;
• A growing population;
• Good weather;
• Lots of first-time buyers;
• No overbuilding;
• A vital downtown;
• A well-educated population; and
• Foreclosures earlier than other cities.
  

Brett Widness is an editor with AOL's real estate channel. Find homes for sale, foreclosures, home values, home finance and apartments at AOL Real Estate.