The August issue of Money magazine offers a creative way of analyzing housing markets: the number of Home Depot stores opening in an area. By this measure, Milwaukee is doing very well, and this apparently comes as a shock to The New York Times.

"Expanding in the Sun Belt isn't surprising, but the chain is soon going to offer its eighth store in Milwaukee, not the first place you think of when it comes to rising real estate prices," wrote Paul B. Brown in an article in the Times on Saturday, Aug. 13.

"The company invests as much in researching demographic, employment and wage trends as do sophisticated real estate investors. After all, the qualities that make for housing hot spots (rising prices, rising sales, lots of construction) are the same ones Home Depot seeks when scouting for new stores."

Can Milwaukee keep up the pace, and what other cities are close behind our hot Home Depot housing market? A list of upcoming store openings can be found at the Home Depot Web site.