Investors, What Are the Pros and Cons of Your Particular Market?

[Cole Holloway]

Hey everyone! I'm new to BiggerPockets and I just started becoming very interested in real estate investing. At this point, I'm doing a ton of research and reading daily but I find all the books and articles in the world can never quite give you the "boots on the ground" feel for a particular area.

In an effort to become more knowledgeable, I've been trying to get a handle on the different markets around the country and which are already solid and/or up and coming (COVID-19 issues aside...). My questions are:

1) What area of the country are you in and what are some pros and cons of your particular market? (I'm a very data driven person so if you have statistical support that would also be awesome!)

2) If you have solid knowledge of other markets (outside of yours) which are those that intrigue you (you would be interested in investing in yourself) and those that you would personally steer clear from?

3) What's a "dark horse" market that might not be incredible at the moment but has all the signs of future promise?

I want to note, this is for my own knowledge base and research. I understand that everyone's providing an opinion here and I don't plan on taking anyone's opinion as gospel. Just want to get a better 20,000 foot view of the different markets in the country being so new to this world myself.

If you choose to respond, thank you for taking the time to answer! I greatly appreciate it.