Philidelphis market and Cleveland Market

[Jay Hinrichs]

Wanted to give my feedback on these two markets .. I am not making recommendations by any means I don't want to start a Cleveland is better than Philly debate other than we know the eagles are better than the brownies.

That said these are fairly new markets for me.. I have been in Philly/Baltimore now for about 18 months and Cleveland since June.

And my take on is as follows:  ( just got back this week from 3 days in Philly and was in Cleveland in Oct.)

Philly:

 To me is a mini New York ( stay downtown)  lots happening lots of young people ( I am OLD)  nicely attired . Not like Portland Weird were we have a lot of young people but they have a much more casual appearance or dress code.

Like 60 minutes said Portland is a city were young people come to retire :)

but back to what we do which is real estate Philly is just booming in all points of the compass coming out of down town there is serious rengentrification going on there.. and being a suburbs boy.. Row houses was something I just had never seen or could really understand.. Like who could live so close to each other.. but Hey its what they do there.

Talk about path of progress play.. 

Restaurants we went to were Packed with the millennials out on a Tuesday night that is always a strong sign of good things in a city..  All in all Pretty impressed there are going to be some really happy investors in that city.  Tax's are reasonable in this city.  That's one thing I like compared to say Chicago.

Cleveland:

My take on Cleveland was the down town was still a ways away but the burgs were happening.. some really solid neighborhoods with good price points.. for the starter or mid level investor.. For C and B- product I thought the areas looked much safer than some cities C product and when your  few miles out of the city in out lying areas it was really nice... You do have to watch for property tax's but once you navigate those then your in pretty good shape.. the POS while for some would be an issue for me I am OK putting 10 to 20k up and getting it back a few week later after the work has been done.. I can see though for those that need financing or more of a limited capital availability it would not be that great.. but I see that also as giving those that can handle the extra cash set aside without any stress better shot at some nicer deals as many wont buy just because of that..

So as an investor who has spent 20 years funding stuff mainly from the Mason Dixon line south.. I am glad to get up into the rust belt and see whats going on..  there is never ending inventory in these cities although prices are rising for sure but that is a good thing  who wants to buy in an area were they know prices never rise or wont rise.. ( I know that does not excite me personally) and to me its a testament of the areas bouncing back from multi decade lows.

Anyone else have thoughts ???