Market In Atlanta

[Andrejs Duda]

I've read a few articles about best markets to invest at in the States, and I thought Atlanta, Ga was up there, but the results I am getting here are all over the place. Please comment on this as I want to know investor's opinions about how accurate these type of articles are.

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/the-smarter-mu...

and 

http://www.realtytrac.com/news/real-estate-investi...

[Azeez K.]

Hi @Andrejs Duda

We met at CFT last year! It's good to see you on the site.

Here is my response to your question:

You will find a lot of articles like the ones you listed every day. These articles are very subjective and often times don’t represent the complete picture. Since Real Estate in general is very localized game..especially in Atlanta so I typically don’t put too much emphasis on these articles. I just take these articles for what it’s worth and never base my investment decisions on the same. The realtytrac article is a good one and I do see that Clayton, Sandy Springs, Bibb and Marietta are good places that have seen a positive rental returns. However, prices have gone up and at certain price points that valuation don't make sense and based on high prices the positive rental yields can be negative if you don't buy right. 

As an investor I typically pay more emphasis to my understanding of the area and market trends for my farming area and focus on the key financial metrics and comparable sales. I don’t discount the articles but I tend to read more published studies that have data to back the overall message. For example Emerging Trends in RealEstate – The global outlook for 2015 or America’s Rental Housing – Harvard Studies or n.number or published articles and books.

At the end of the day you have to look at both macro and micro economic factors so that you are aware of what’s going on globally and it’s local implications you also need to have a deep understanding of your farming areas and know a good deal from bad one.

Hope this helps!