The best-selling projects profiled on the following pages are like the results of a scientific experiment. What if you subjected the housing market to the worst possible conditions? What would people buy even if they were worried about job prospects, concerned about falling home prices, and couldn’t be sure economic conditions would improve?

What you get is a list of evergreen projects, ones likely to sell no matter the economic conditions. Within these test projects you are likely to find the seeds of the industry’s future—safer bets for which banks are more likely to make loans.

To gather these test cases, we went to researchers who collect new-home sales data in local markets, the same sources that we use to compile our Local Leaders data. We asked them to nominate projects from among the very best selling in the markets they track, projects that reflect trends, present and future.

We received a collection of projects that speak to the wide variety of housing solutions that builders undertake. You’ll find hot new loft projects in urban centers, sympathetic infill projects that rose out of decades-old neighborhoods, and repositioned suburban tract developments priced to compete with distressed sales.

Besides a high sales rate, the projects share other salient characteristics. Many are green, typically built to a local standard, and tantalizing buyers with the prospect of lower operating costs. Most, as you would suspect with any list of fast-selling projects, are targeted at entry-level buyers; they typically tout the availability of FHA financing and federal tax credits.

Several of the projects are reminiscent of happier times, when people camped out to get first dibs on a community, when builders developed long waiting lists before they released homes, when developers could point to monthly sales rates in the double-digits.

Here, in no particular order, are 10 of the best-selling projects in the country.

Learn more about markets featured in this article: Austin, TX, Chicago, IL, Denver, CO, Phoenix, AZ, Los Angeles, CA, Bradenton, FL.