What Can You Buy With $100,000 in Today's Real Estate Market?

MIAMI, Jan. 12, 2008— -- What does $100,000 buy you in today's real estate market? "Nightline" went to find out.

And what better place to begin than Miami, the epicenter of the real estate boom and bust.

"With the economy today, there are opportunities for people to buy at prices that people didn't dream, even two years ago, that they would be able to see these kind of prices," said Ron Shuffield, the president of EWM, one of the biggest real estate companies in south Florida.

We started our quest in the suburbs, where the boom transformed tree farms and tomato fields into housing tracts.

"This is Homestead, which is the southernmost city in Miami-Dade county," Shuffield said. "It's located right before you move into the Florida Keys."

Our first stop was a townhouse development finished last year and we immediately found a brand-new home in foreclosure.

"It's owned by a bank, and now the bank has put it back on the market for sale," said Shuffield. "This has obviously never been lived in."

Shuffield said the home was on the market for $92,000.

"It originally sold for about $140,000," he said. "These are the kind of benefits that today's buyers are able to take advantage of when the banks have taken them back and selling them for less than they originally went for."

We found similar stories in cities across the country. Check listings like we did and you'll find a bank-owned three-bedroom on the outskirts of Phoenix for $99,900, a three-bedroom with two-car garage outside Las Vegas for $95,000 or a cozy two-bedroom with brick fireplace in Minneapolis for $84,900.

And in a pretty nice neighborhood in Dallas, real estate agent Amy Downs took us to see a 2,300-square-foot house that was worth $160,000 a year ago and is now owned by a bank eager to unload it.

"[It's] plenty big," she said, giving us a tour. "Ceramic tile. This is the family room, lots of details -- wood paneling, lots of built-ins, continues into the formal dining area."

The home is listed at $109,900, but Downs says you can probably get it for $100,000.