Whatsup with Fayetteville NC Housing Market?

[Keith N.]

Recently, I've been looking into other areas of NC I may want to invest in (buy and hold) as the Triangle area market seems to be getting more and more difficult to find a deal. I began looking into Fayetteville and noticed that their are 100's of SFR homes on the market for under 100K, a lot of which have been on the market for 100+ days or more. I don't know the Fayetteville area very well, but all of these houses were extremely close to the Millitary Base (which I assume is favorable to most renters). However, i searched Craigslist to investigate what monthly rents people were asking for and was surprised to find 1000's upon 1000's of SFR's for rent.

These are my assumptions about the area.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

- There is a surplus of SFR inventory in Fayetteville and people are having trouble selling their homes

- There is a large pool of potential renters who want SFR's because many are millitary families

- It looks however that there are already A TON of SFR homes for rent and available. Maybe their is even a surplus of houses available for rent, making it tougher for an investor to differentiate his property from others and get good tenants.

I would really appreciate the insight of others who have lived in this area, invested in this market, or have similar or conflicting ideas as me.  I see Fayetteville as a potential "cheaper" market than the triangle where it may be a lot easier to pick up cash flowing properties.  However, I'm confused as to what to make of the 100's of homes on the market that aren't selling.