Positive equity is preferred to negative equity

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/03/0314_collegetowns/index_01.htm

This Business Week piece makes the case for investing in real estate in college towns. Ann Arbor is the fifth slide and, according to this piece, Ann Arbor home prices outperformed the state as a whole (not a really high bar there) by falling less despite Pfizer's departure and all the rest. I spent a few minutes the other day on realtor.com looking at the homes for sale in my zip code and was pleased to find that at least the offer prices had fallen less than I thought. Good news, that.