Single family or multifamily in Albany, NY

[Steve Hoghe]

Hello Albany residents, I'm looking for a little local insight. I am from Delmar originally, now living in California, but looking to invest in Albany given that I cannot afford to out here and still have many contacts in the area. I am currently looking in the Pine Hills area, and am debating on going the multi or SFH route for buy and hold. After some quick searching, there seem to be some multis and SFH that meet the 1% rule.

My question is, how strong is the demand for SFH rentals in the area? It seems to me that renting a 3BR SHF at 1400/month doesn't make sense if you can just purchase a 140k house for 5k down and ~900/month (mortgage plus mortgage insurance using a FHA loan. Obviously for recent grads living 3 heads to a place they are not going to purchase a house, so I guess that is part two of the question - does the area trend more to single grads or young families with kids (who would actually consider purchasing)?

On a side note, I will be in the area in mid November and plan on viewing some properties. Would love to meet any local investors or other people in the business while I'm back.