Moving for work and looking for housing options

[Wesley Whitehead]

All, I have recently started training for a career in federal law enforcement. Yesterday I was given a list of field office assignments I can expect to go to and was looking for feedback on the areas below. I am looking to house house or get a property as a live in fix. Any information any members have on the areas below or experiences members have had in the areas already mentioned would be greatly appreciated. List of available field offices are as follows: LA, SanFran, NYC, WashDC, Miami, Boston.

[Trevor Ewen]

@Wesley Whitehead

That's an amazing list of options. Those are all the most desirable coastal markets in the country, excepting Seattle I suppose.

Unfortunately, from a real-estate perspective, they are all high cost, high regulation, negative cashflow locations. There are some that disagree on the forum. I am happy for them to make their case, but for the vast majority of investors, the numbers will not work from an income perspective. You can try your luck with flipping, etc, but they are still very hard places to get a deal.

The best thing I can recommend is to look for nearby cities that offer investment potential. I know that NYC is very tough since the metro area extends very far, and all the nearby locations are high tax (it's also where I live, so personal experience).

For some of the others:

Boston: Worcester seems like it has potential. I have never run numbers, but the community has some of the characteristics I look for. I would talk to other investors about that.

LA: Bakersfield seems the same way to me. Granted, you would be much better served living up north. And also... forest fires.

DC: Heard about successes and failures in Baltimore. It's a rough market in many patches, but you can find deals.

Miami: Very concerned about water supply and rising seas here. I would give it a pass even though Florida is great for many regulatory and cost reasons.

SanFran: Good luck. This one is even harder than NYC. I would avoid this if income real estate is in your view. Sacramento is probably the only sensible play left here, and that's getting pricey as well.