Hi! Does anyone know the best, growing and developing, areas to invest in the US today where properties can be purchased for less than $90K and have a positive cash flow in low crime areas? (with minor cosmetics needed or less!) What formulas are used to figure this out and which websites are recommended for the research? Thanks in advance!
Well, places like Texas and Ohio are good starts. However, these places have low appreciation returns normally (sometimes 0% or -).
If you want solid places with appreciation returns in the 5,10,20+%, you will need to spend more than 90k most likely. Those areas are normally here on west coast (homes 250k on up) or other prime areas.
I recommend GOOGLE.com. Seriously, start there and type in what you are looking for. Pick an area and google it to find websites on it. Next, go to the online versions of the newspapers for that area and read read read.
Now look at places like the classifieds of those papers and rentclicks.com to see what rental rates area.
I am going to pick a city at random, Myrtle Beach, SC. I just typed in google “myrtle beach crime”.
Very first listing was
http://myrtlebeach.areaconnect.com/crime1.htm
Stats are from 2002 but it is a start. Many more results to peruse.
Homes under 90k you say? 1 place--Realtor.com. Pick a city and include surrounding areas and search for homes 90k or less. Real easy.
By doing lots of reading of the newspaper for the area and googling sites about the city, you will be able to tell how hot or not it is.
If you can’t think of a city to start with, make a list of all the cities you can think of and then hit realtor.com and search. I bought a road atlas, which was so worth the $15. I don’t know every city and town in every state, but now I can look at them.
In closing, I recommend you do a realtor.com search first. Then if you see the area has the homes you are looking for, start researching. No point in researching an area without the homes you need.
Come to North Carolina…I’m having a ball here not many investors
Where specifically? I have looked in the Carolina’s.
The main problem I see in many areas is a poor mortgage to rent ratio, which makes most of the homes negative cash machines.
Read,
Close to where you are is best for investment. You need to be clsoe enough to look after your property. If you are ready to move to an investment area, read the National Assoc. of Realtors monthly sales reports. The chief economist for NAR is David Lereah. His name is in
virtually every NAR press release of interest, so it’s an easy google search. Read. Read. Read. Choose an area, then follow the suggestions above. (I like the North end of FLA).
Good luck,
Ray
The coastal waters in NC and SC. The great thing is we are buying 40-50% below market and all the new investors to the area are buying them from us @ 20-25% below market. So as far as wholesaling it’s great. And foreclosures are on the rise in 150K-200K neighborhoods. It’s great here really not much comp.
Housing prices are ballooning in Las Vegas
In First Quarter
By MICHAEL SCHROEDER
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON – With low mortgage rates fueling a long housing boom, home prices continued to rise briskly during the first three months of the year.
Home prices rose 2.2% nationwide in the first quarter, a rate unchanged from last year’s fourth quarter, according a quarterly index reported by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. Prices rose 12.5% in the 12 months through March, compared with 11.9% for the comparable period the year before, Ofheo said.
While housing prices continued their swift climb, U.S. manufacturing growth moderated in May. The Institute for Supply Management, which polls purchasing managers at more than 400 industrial companies, reported that its index of manufacturing activity stood at 51.4 in May, down from 53.3 in April and 55.2 in March – the sixth consecutive monthly decline. Still, the reading is above 50, which indicates growth.
Housing prices are ballooning in some states. Nevada had the highest price appreciation of 31.2% in the 12-month period, followed by California and Hawaii, with 25.4% and 24.4%, respectively. Texas and Indiana showed the slowest price increases of 3.8% and 4.1%, respectively, Ofheo reported.
“The House Price Index shows the rise in house prices continues at an extremely strong pace and raises the potential for declines in some areas later on,” said Ofheo Chief Economist Patrick Lawler.
The quarterly house-price index, which uses data supplied by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, measures price movements on sales or refinancings of single-family homes (below $365,000) whose mortgages are owned or guaranteed by the government-sponsored enterprises.
He said homes under 90k. This takes Vegas off the table, unless there is some super secret area I don’t know about lol
Median price for homes here are 300k. In the lower income places, you can find homes in the 150k area. These areas don’t appreciate much though and the huge spikes here are over for now. We are still going up but the area is currently saturated with homes (probably a 9 month supply in the market), which reduces demand. Good areas will still appreciation rates of about 12-15% over the next 12 months, which is normal.
While investing where you live first is a super idea and concept, for many this just is not possible. If your target home would be 100k and you live on the west coast, odds are, you need to look elsewhere.
Here is an example of a good deal in Las Vegas as of June 5, 2005. I am not selling or promoting this in any way.
$64,000
2 Bedrooms
2 Full Baths
0 Half Baths
1722 Lot Size
864 Sq.Ft.
In my opinion, I would speculate in the fastest growing city in America on a less desirable able, before I ship my money every else. Besides, you can a tax right off every time you visit your investment
You can find condos for 50-100k all over the place. The condo market here is hot.
As for properties, got to be careful. There are areas where little homes can be had but they are normally in gang areas like Carey, MLK, etc. Historically, those areas do not go up much and they are filled with the most violence and drug activity in our city.
However, if you plan on dealing with very run down areas, this would be your ticket.
Don’t forget, our city is highly transient and in those areas, you will find the worst of it.
If you really have to look out of your area they Diversify! why buy all in one area! Not all of my homes are in Colorado 85% here and 15% in other areas I personally think any State is good for investing. Just depends on what you are looking to do follow the market trends Don’t only get good at one thing do it all!
Thanks for the input! Specifically, where in North Carolina, northern FL, Texas, and Ohio?!? How about Oklahoma?
Is there a website that lists the cities and towns where major companies will be moving to?
My curreent focus will be on rental properties that have a positive cash flow from the time of purchase.
Good investment areas in Texas would be Austin, Houston, Dallas, or San Antonio. Houston and San Antonio don’t appreciate that much, depending on the area, but rent very well.
Bastrop, East Austin, and San Antonio are having a lot of rehabs, flips, new developments, etc. Rents are more stable in San Antonio. Lake areas in Austin are booming with new developments and retail is really picking up.
To learn about Texas Real Estate, go to http://recenter.tamu.edu/ or the local chamber and board of Realtors® for the city you’re interested in.
I looked at SA before settling on Houston. One big advantage Houston has is a much higher renter to pop ratio.
37% of SA residents rent whereas 53% of Houston residents rent. That number also becomes much larger when you factor in the current population for both places, which is higher significantly (60%) in Houston.