Investments in Cleveland OH

[James Blalock]

Hope I have the right forum for this question. If not, can someone please point me to the right forum.  My issue is that I've seen Cleveland OH mentioned as a good place to invest, yet two things have me concerned. First, I looked up the demographics for Cleveland. While property values are going up, the population has gone down over several years. There are still a lot of foreclosures in Cleveland as well. That could be a good thing in terms of purchase price but I'm not really looking to rehab property since I'm out of state. What also concerns me is I have family in Cleveland and their home was just reassessed at a higher value that what they paid for it a year ago. The city is making them pay back taxes from the day they bought the property.  Their mortgage is going up $600/month until the back taxes are paid (the mortgage will eventually level out at about $200 more/month than what they planned). If that happened on a rental property it would wipe out any cash flow, not to mention that it seems unfair to go after back taxes on a home that was just now assessed at a higher value.  First, does anyone have any insights on possible growth in Cleveland in the future? Second, how do you avoid surprise tax increases, or is that just a part of the risks?