Millennials,BabyBoomers And Apartment Complex

[Vincent Chen]

Just bought a 8-unix complex out-of-state,will post the details once everything wrapped up in the forum.Still keep learning the apartment industry/market, since some apartment Gurus once said "The learning curve is the industry/market,not the property itself".

Keep looking for the reasonable markets for my investment, since every market is local for real estate.During this process,I found some kind of driver factors for different markets. Demography is definitely one of main factors, so we are talking about two main demographics for apartment complex : Millennials and baby-boomers.

According to the research,Millennials,young professionals, given their financial profile and lifestyle preference, will prefer small units in walkable urban neighborhood. And strong preference for the health,mordern lifestyle amenities:Gym,internet. ,so on.

As for the baby boomers, they are in the retirement life phase and may also prefer the walkable communities for the life, which is definitely not the suburb lifestyle.

So does this mean only the apartment complex in neighborhood A or B with easy access to the urban life can attract the young professionals? Does the transitional neighborhood C ,which is the blue collar family-orietnied neighrobhood,still good choices for apartment complex?

I am value-add investor fro apartment complex and totally new for the game, would like to discuss the trend with any level investors. Correct me if anything is wrong, thanks for any inputs.

[Todd Dexheimer]

I think you are on the right track. Buying apartments in desirable areas is always smart and right now urban areas are definitely the trend. I am not big on the micro-units for long term, due to the fact that it could be short lived, but buying apartments with a good mix of studios, 1's and 2's is a solid play. 

I still think that areas that aren't trendy can be good. Often you can buy for less and have good cash flow in those areas, but you sacrifice appreciation.