If you live in Philadelphia's Society Hill, Atlanta's Grant Park, or Dallas's University Park, (and if you're the type who doesn't pay much attention to what's going on in the world), you might be tempted to ask, "Housing slump? What housing slump?"

That's because you live in one of the most lucrative neighborhoods in the U.S., as listed by Forbes. Neighborhoods in 15 major metropolitan areas made the list because they experienced the greatest increase in home sales prices since 1990 -- between 300% and 4,000%. Many were downtrodden areas that benefited from an influx of development. A few others were already among the most upscale neighborhoods in the nation, and have thus far resisted the recent housing slump. For example:

• Bucking the Florida real estate downturn is Miami Beach's City Center, with its mega-mansions with built-on docks. The 2006 median home sales price was $1.64 million, up 1,532% since 1990.
• Chicago's Wicker Park benefited from an influx of young urban professionals and rehabbers. The 2006 median home sales price was $575,525, an increase of 1,870%.
• San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood is among the fastest growing in U.S. The 2006 median home sales price was $1.38 million, an increase of 522% since 1990.
• New York's uptown neighborhood around 149th Street and Riverside drive features large brownstones and federal townhouses. Its 2006 median home sales price was $774,708, up 4,391%.

See the article at Forbes.com for the complete list.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007 feature. The voting has now closed and readers have chosen the weak dollar and rising oil and gold prices as the money story of the year. Be sure to let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

As we approach the end of 2007, we now have a really tough question to answer. What is the Money Story of 2007? What are the candidates?

The Boom and Bust in Private Equity Buyouts

As we entered 2007, no one could imagine the activity with private equity firms around the world. Private equity firms were supposed to be the new Masters of the Universe, ushering in a new Gilded Age not seen since 1920s. We saw this with the initial public offering of the Blackstone Group, the premiere private equity group. This was followed by a series of public and semi-public offerings by other organizations, such as Apollo Group.

However, the new Roaring '20s was relatively short-lived with the credit crunch. This caused most merger activity, including corporate buyouts, to come to grinding halt. Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) now trades substantially below its high price. Who could guess that private equity would experience a boom and bust all in the same year? However, before you dismiss private equity as an element of the past, remember that most of these firms still have substantial cash available ready to invest when conditions are ripe.

Here are some highlights of this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Air France-KLM (NYSE: AKH) nearly doubled Q2 profits, and may make offers for some European rivals.
• Blue Coat Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BCSI) beat expectations and raised its guidance.
• Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) posted strong results and announced approval of a stock split.
• Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) reported a $2 billion loss for the third quarter.
• Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) beat expectations for the eleventh straight quarter.
• Lowe's Cos. (NYSE: LOW) sales and profits declined due to the housing slump.
• Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN) easily beat estimates, signaling strength among luxury retailers.
• Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP) beat estimates but lowered its Q4 outlook.
• Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) fell short of expectations and announced a share buyback.
• Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) reported weak earnings but raised its dividend.

Douglas McIntyre ponders whether HP's results put pressure on Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) ahead of Dell's impending report, and he also examines Qualcomm Inc.'s (NASDAQ: QCOM) future earnings difficulties.

Upcoming results to watch for include: Dell Inc. and Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

It seems like we just cannot bust out of the current housing slump we have been in this year. Today we got more negative news, as the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell by 8 percent during the month of September.

September's drop is the largest one-month decline since all the way back in 1999, and resulted in home prices dropping yet again. During the month, the average price for existing home sales fell to $211,700. With this price drop, we have now seen prices fall 13 of the past 14 months, putting prices 4.2 percent lower than the same period last year.

Every segment of the country felt the pain last month, with the Northeast taking the biggest hit as sales dropped 10 percent. The West saw sales drop 9.9 percent, the Midwest experienced a 7 percent decline and sales in the South fell by 6 percent.

Figures released today in the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Indices illustrate the continuing malaise in the housing market. The index tracks the relative value of residential real estate in the U.S. by following the change in sale price of individual houses.

With a baseline of 100 in the first quarter of 2000, the 2nd quarter of 2007 index finished at 183.89, down 1% from the 1st quarter and 1.9% since the end of 2006. This represents the 4th consecutive quarter of diminishing value and a drop of 3.2% year over year, the biggest one-year drop in the 20 years of the survey.

Those communities suffering the worst decline over the past year, according to the report, are Detroit (-11.0%), Tampa (-7.7%), and Washington (-7.0%). Those that fared better included Seattle (+7.9%), Charlotte (6.8%), and Portland (+4.5%).

With so much negative news swirling around the housing market lately, it was a pleasant surprise to see some encouraging news surface today, showing that home sales rose in the month of July.

While we are still in a situation where home sales are down over ten percent from last year's levels, July saw a decent 2.8 percent jump in new home sales. This comes on the heels of a 4 percent drop during the month of June. Analysts had been expecting to see new home sales fall once again last month, so the increase, as small as it was, is definitely great news for the market.

Some of the reason why we are seeing the current increase in sales has to be attributed to falling prices for new homes. As I wrote about earlier this month, falling home prices should help to start to balance out the housing market, and hopefully this is starting to take effect.

Don't get me wrong... it's never good to be in an environment where people's homes are decreasing in value, but this may be just what the doctor ordered in order to bring buyers back into the market. The average price for a new home in July was $300,800, down from $311,300 during July of last year.

While there is no doubt that the housing market is still on very shaky ground, today's news is definitely a welcome treat, and hopefully signs of better things to come.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

A neighbor in my middle-class neighborhood of $200-$400,000 homes recently bought two adjacent houses and bridged them to create a 10,000-foot, $1+ million mansion. I thought he was nuts, until I read the New York Times article that suggests this is the best price point in today's market.

No one quibbles that selling a modestly-priced home in virtually any American market today is an exercise in despair. According to a report on NPR yesterday, the country is sitting on a one and a half year supply of new homes. And the numbers seem to be getting worse for some new home builders (see Eric Buscemi's post on the cancellation numbers at Ryland).

The ultra-expensive spreads, such as the $165 million Hearst estate Peter Cohan blogged about yesterday, are also struggling on the sales block. The 'tweeners, though, such as gentrified Boston homes, generous Manhattan flats, or Gold Coast condos, seem to be bucking the trend.

So maybe my neighbor has the right idea. Perhaps the multitude of house-flipping shows on cable television will be replaced with home mergers, turning two modest homes into one gargantuan (and sellable) property. If our society's income is stratifying, the new wealthy will need their estates, and the rest of us, our wattle huts.