Best Recession Cities for investment

[Brandon Schaffner]

I'm 33 and looking to relocate. I was an interior designer (cabinet sales basically) in Denver, Colorado before the corona. Now I'm provided with a new opportunity. Im not going back to my old job and I can basically move anywhere USA.  The high cost in Denver had me priced out of the game of homeownership/investment properties (wish i found contract sales sooner). Although I am expecting prices in denver to correct in light of current events, I have decided not to stick around (been there 9 years and ready for a change). 

I'm researching cities that may be best for coming opportunities in the RE market and want to open up the national discussion from members. How do you feel your city will fair? Is it overpriced or underpriced currently? how is the population growing? (Denver was non stop young people) Do you expect prices to correct and fall if they were high (denver, san fran, boston, scottsdale/phoenix, seattle, La to name a few) 

Personally I liked the idea of "B' cities before the rona ever showed up. Following one of  the trends of millennials moving to generally southern, smaller towns in search of cheaper prices, better taxes, young vibe: I see that holding (Nashville, baton rouge, Raleigh, charlotte,  Ashville, Charleston, lots of Florida) 

My Insight to share:
I have experience in Coastal SC and Savannah (lived there 5 years -Bluffton, Hilton head, Savannah). I personally am biased towards savannah (love it) but it has some major problems (crime) and decent steady growth but not explosive growth. I am already seeing lots more houses coming on the market, ones that were under contract two months ago are suddenly available again,  tons of new spec houses in the big suburb developments are littered on realtor.com. Not sure how those will play out or what the opportunity is there for the new builds. In general, my senses tell me there are better areas out there.  There is industry around but nothing too large ( Gulfstream, Georgia pacific, daniel defense) but they have already been hit with layoffs and aren't bulletproof. I went to Savannah college of Art and Design (SCAD), a very popular school in that area that is also a keystone in renovating and investing in the city. Most of the students that go there would stick around if there was a supporting high-paying tech job market but there just isn't for most of these fields- interaction design - UX design - industrial design - design management - graphic design - fashion design - etc. Lots of my friends ended up in bigger cities to work for IBM, google, Microsoft and larger design firms in places like Seattle , Austin, san Fran >  and some in Raleigh where even the bigger companies like IBM are opening up campuses. So that gives you an idea of the area and job market income limitations -There is money obviously there just not the higher paying jobs on average. I think the play in Savannah is buying close to SCAD buildings ( the campus is scattered throughout the city) and rent them to students with the long option of selling years away (5-7).  Charleston is a step up from savannah economically, historically and its larger. I'm not as familiar with it but that's a consideration.

What are your favorite areas right now, where would you set up shop for the next 5-10 years if you were starting out?

[Troy Gandee]

@Brandon Schaffner I'm hesitant to say Charleston is "recession proof", but as far as the South goes, we have a staggering amount of industry. Our economy is also pretty well diversified. We have a ton of tourism, which fuels hospitality. We have a lot of Govt jobs thanks for the Air Force Base and Naval Weapons stuff. The ports and rail provide a lot of great jobs. We have a half dozen international manufacturing companies. Quite a bit of tech. There are more to mention, but these are the primary ones. Savannah is a great city, but I don't think they're nearly as developed as Charleston economically. Charleston is quite a bit more expensive than Savannah, though.