Best Vibrant City for Duplex Investment/Living

[Devin Wynn]

Hi there,

I've saved up a bit and am considering taking a break from work, relocating to a city TBD, buying a duplex, and having tenants offset the costs.

In terms of Cities I've spent all of my life in California (Southern California, San Francisco), so would like to try something new. If I were to rank them, I'd rate the following:

• NYC/Boston (Not really into drinking and partying, but love the energy and diversity of NY and the intellectualism of Boston)
• Philadelphia (The History and just East Coast in general)
• Chicago/D.C. (A lot of people, young, vibrant)
• Austin/Portland (I like their eccentric culture, but don't love them because I'm more into diversity at this stage)

However, I've found it hard to find a place that matches the critieria:

• Under 400k
• Multi-Unit
• Urban and Young
• Good rental or Airbnb market
• Good investment and growth to follow

The best contender so far would be Chicago where some duplexes surrounding Hyde Park (mainly South of it) near University of Chicago seem to have some affordable multi units. New York and Boston are 2 expensive, and the others seem to have good multi units.

Any where else I'm missing? Help me decide where to move, thanks!

[Jennifer S.]

Hi Devin 

Sounds like an intriguing project. 

You may want to keep looking at Atlanta. I think there are more walkable restaurants now and a more dynamic cultural scene. I am on my phone and can't get hyper links here but search for Michaela G who's posted on artists in Atlanta and interesting developments with the Belt Line. 

If you suffer from allergies though I've heard it can be brutal there bc it's so green

What about Philadelphia? I saw it on your list initially. Seems like some artists and media types that don't have to be in NYC every day might be moving there, not sure

I love Chicago too and notice it appears on a lot of Global Gateway city lists (like NY, Boston, DC and some West Coast cities do). But at a cheaper price than those cities. Maybe the weather holds it back

I'm a Boston native and just finished a coffee inside the massive, beautiful central public library here with names of philosophers like Kant carved into the wall. There is a public radio station broadcasting from this coffee shop even. So as intellectual as you can get. But the prices here have skyrocketed and I'm not sure some of the cheaper areas will give you the intellectual vibe you'd like. 

Maybe they will but I haven't seen any independent coffee shops, yoga studios etc opening in those areas, not one, so you may have a long haul unless you open one yourself (which I always thought might be an interesting real estate value add strategy). Not to sound like a cliche yuppie hipster :)