Choosing a Market: Miami area or Allentown, PA

[David Cabañero Vazquez]

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great today and I apologies before hand if I ask something stupid ( I am very much a rookie in the subject)

I had Real Estate Investing for a while in mind but I never felt empowered enough until recently when I started reading BP. I have been living in NY for the last 9 years but due to family reasons I found myself spending the biggest part of the year in Spain. The goal behind starting now was also to establish a more cost effective residence in the US and start an investing portfolio. 

I am a data nerd so I started analyzing data of all the regions in the US on the basis of rent to price ratio,  Price Trend, inventory, Days to Pending and general demographics (Population Growth, Income...). 

Out of that analysis came 2 regions:

Miami-Fort Lauderdele Area and Allentown, PA. 

1) First of all I wanted to ask if any of you guys are investing in those regions and you have some experiences to share. Data trends can´t beat actual experience on the ground :)

2) Property types:

I was looking for SFR and Multi (Duplex/Triplex). This is mostly because I least for the first property, I want it to double as a perm residence in the US while I am there.

3) Budget

Allentown: <= 200k

Miami Area <= 400k

I would love to get your thoughts and if possible network with people in the area. 

Thanks a lot!

[Cameron Braig]

Some good metrics to help determine markets and submarkets can be; rent growth, income growth, job growth, population growth and job diversification. These can help to filter out some of the noise and better identify target markets and submarkets.