"People often want to buy a second home as a vacation spot, but finding a top-quality area that's still affordable, yet promises to be a good investment years from now, can take tremendous effort. It's like finding the secret local fishing spots," said Andrew Schiller, a geographer and founder of the company.

The towns along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts included Bristol, Maine; Saunderstown, R.I.; Clinton, Conn.; Absecon, N.J.; Leonardtown, Md.; Havelock, N.C.; Palm Coast, Fla.; Big Pine Key, Fla.; Daphne, Ala.; and Refugio, Texas.

Pacific Coast towns included Petersburg, Alaska; Clinton, Wash.; Gold Beach, Ore.; Mendocino, Gualala, Castroville, Cambria, Los Osos, and Aliso Viejo, Calif.; and Captain Cook, Hawaii.

Rocky Mountain towns included Big Fork, Mc Leod, and Gardner, Mont.; Wallace and Hailey, Idaho; Ten Sleep and Saratoga, Wyo.; Heber City, Utah; Nederland, Colo.; and Pena Blanca, N.M.

Shiller studied the country's 61,000 census tracks, or neighborhoods, using data from the Census Bureau, Department of Education, Federal Housing Authority and even the FBI to find his "hidden gems."

NeighborhoodScout is a Web-based neighborhood database service that matches real neighborhoods to consumer-specified criteria.