WOONSOCKET, RI (May 13, 2004) 鈥� In every hot metropolitan area there are hidden bargain neighborhoods that offer quality without the high prices. Finding these hidden gems can be a challenge, especially in a hot real estate market. But you can get the inside track on great areas to buy a home by targeting one of the Washington, DC area鈥檚 top 5 undervalued towns. 鈥淗ousing prices are at all-time highs in many parts of the country, making house-hunting tough work, and particularly difficult if you are trying to buy into a top-quality community,鈥� says Andrew Schiller, president of Location, Inc. and a PhD geographer who specializes in American demography. 鈥淯ndervalued towns can be great places to look because you can buy into a premium neighborhood and still find a good deal on a house 鈥� even in today鈥檚 market.鈥� 鈥淯ndervalued towns are towns with many premium qualities, like good public schools, low crime rates, educated neighbors, and owner-occupied single family homes, but where median home prices are surprisingly low compared to similar neighborhoods in the area,鈥� says Schiller. 鈥淣one of these communities are cheap, but they are relative bargains because of the quality of communities they are.鈥� Schiller found the top 5 undervalued towns in the Washington, DC area by using 蘑菇视频庐, a web-based neighborhood search engine he developed that covers all 61,000 neighborhoods in the U.S. Homebuyers can try 蘑菇视频 for free at www.neighborhoodscout.com. Some of the features are reserved for subscribers. 鈥淵ou can find your own great towns by going to the web site and describing your ideal neighborhood, based on your own criteria,鈥� says Schiller. 鈥淲hatever type of community you are looking for, and however much you want to spend, 蘑菇视频 can help you find the right answer.鈥� Here are 蘑菇视频鈥檚 top 5 undervalued towns for the Washington, DC area: Silver Spring, MD Rockville, MD Alexandria, VA Columbia, MD Germantown, MD All the towns are within 40 miles of the center city. Here are 蘑菇视频鈥檚 top 10 undervalued towns in America鈥檚 10 biggest metro areas for 2004 (by metro area from east to west): Metro Region Top Undervalued Town Boston Holden, MA New York East Meadow, NY Philadelphia Medford, NJ Washington, D.C. Silver Spring, MD Detroit Lathrop Village, MI Chicago Schaumburg, IL Dallas鈥� Fort Worth Richardson, TX Houston Sugar Land, TX San Francisco Antioch, CA Los Angeles Carson, CA Editor鈥檚 Note 鈥淓ducated neighbors鈥� means people 25 and up with college degrees or graduate degrees. 鈥淓xcellent public schools鈥� means combined measures of spending per pupil on core instruction, student-to-teacher ratios (smaller classes and more personal attention to students), and graduation rates. 鈥淐rime鈥� is all FBI crime index scores 鈥� both violent and property 鈥� as a rate per 1,000 population for the community. 鈥淥wner-occupied鈥� single-family homes mean the neighborhood is primarily composed of detached single-family homes owned by their occupants. Data were derived from the FBI and US Justice Department, the US Bureau of the Census, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, and queried directly with 蘑菇视频.