In the center of the country, a market is turning upward and it might be prophetic that it's in middle America. Kansas City home buyers now may look back and realize they've missed the absolute best deals in this Missouri/Kansas city that is split between the two states.

All the numbers are headed in the right direction: inventory for existing homes is down, sales have slowed their spiral fall to a more manageable rate, forcing prices to stop their downward trend and actually move up a percent in the last month.

The Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors reports home sellers are getting about $3,000 more for their homes this last August over the same time last year. Sales are still slipping year over year, but the drop in sales has about come to an end, while inventory has dropped another 7 percent during August.

As an economic powerhouse in the center of the country, the city was named by Forbes Magazine as the fifth best city for sellers as the number of unsold, vacant houses dropped by 40 percent last year. And it might be no coincidence that Forbes also named the city as the 31st best city for jobs in 2008. Four Fortune 500 companies are headquartered there, including telecom giant Spring Nextel and H&R Block.