Seattle's Central Distict has made Forbes Magazine's “Most Lucrative Neighborood list” this year. The area around 23rd and Union has seen a 445% growth in appreciation since 1990. Forbes put together appreciation data from NeighborhoodScout, the U.S. Census Bureau, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac to come up with their list.
The article mentions the area's crime rate is still higher than average, but it's proximity to downtown and the massive amount of “gentrification” that is happening has made it one of the best investment areas around. Other Seattle neighborhoods have done quite well but didn't get mentioned in the article. This isn't a “top ten” list with an order of best to worst, but rather a collection of neighborhoods that have all done quite well. Neighborhoods in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles were some of the sitites that had neighborhoods with even higher rates of appreciation that the Central District's.