Atlantic City Real Estate Value

[Roopa Madihally]

Hi all,

I'm new to BiggerPockets and new to real estate investing as well. I recently found a good property in Atlantic City, New Jersey with a decent pricing with existing tenants in it. I checked the property history in and around the area and some of them were of concern and I checked with one of the agents I know and he said that the Atlantic City property values have been on a decline and will continue to do so in the future. He was not too sure about their rental capacity into the future but he kinda implied that the rental income might decrease as well going into the future. He also mentioned that due to floods in the recent past a lot of people have moved out, however the property that I'm looking at is not in flood risk according to FEMA.

Does anyone know here if Atlantic City in New Jersey is a good idea for investment purposes?

Any pointers are much appreciated!! Thank you !!

[Paul Hillyard]

Your agent is wise and honest. Keep him on your short-list.

One super quick, super high-level (but honestly a really good start) way to research the "quality" of an investment area, particularly (but definitely not exclusively) for multifamily, is population growth.

My favorite site to check this is worldpopulationreview.com. It takes a minute to learn how to navigate, but you can narrow your search down to cities. WPR lists the 500 most populous cities in every state, as well as tons of data on population growth. *I highly recommend starting your search by state, not city.* That higher-level data will give you more perspective. But you can just use the search function if you want.

The reason this is such a good metric, if it wasn't obvious, is that increased population yields increased activity...more people means more money from the state, county, city, what have you. More money means more businesses, homes, apartment complexes, jobs, which in turn brings it full-cycle, inviting more people to the area and repeating the whole thing (Hello, increased rents! Hello, equity!). Be aware though, diminishing returns do exist...