Should I continue to invest in Illinois or focus on Indiana

[Dolores Gonzalez]

Hello BP,

I own 3 multi-family buildings in Chicago.  I have plans to ramp up my real estate investing.  I would love to acquire another handful of buy and hold rentals over the next few years.  I have also been contemplating aiming to do one or two flips per year.  I am very close to the Indiana border.  Over the last several months I have been seeing a lot of articles about a mass exodus from Illinois to surrounding states due to high property taxes and other factors.  At the same time, I work for a property tax firm, and it seems that there are still many investors that see potential in the Chicago area. Does anyone have any advice as to where i should continue to invest.  I don't think I currently have the access to funds to invest in higher end properties at this point.

[Ibn Abney]

@Dolores Gonzalez

Few things:

1) Population decline in the state is higher than the city's decline

2) Population decline in the city of Chicago is concentrated in higher crime areas and low income communities. Lower income folks are leaving as taxes are rising.

3) Why is there so much new commercial development happening in the loop, north-side, south loop, and surrounding burbs? These commercial builders do tons of market research and since the city crane count is a  record high right now, that tells me that serious investors/large firms see a lot of potential in Chicago.

4)Lastly,  employers are moving to the city to find younger talent: McDonald's, Walgreen's, Kraft-Heinz, Tyson-Hillshire, and ConAgra to name a few.  And just last week Elon Musk announced his new development as well:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/...

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20180613/BL...

With that said, is Chicago the best city in the world with no issues? Not at all. But what is Indiana doing better than Chicago in terms on commerce? Price point wise compared to other major cities, Chicago is a great place to be!!

my 2 cents :-)