Circumstantial Advice for purchasing in Erie, PA

[Justin Grubbs]

Hello, everyone! (sorry in advance if this is a bit lengthy)

So my wife and I are looking to move into the city of Erie to purchase a place of our own so that we can be closer to work and entertainment/friends. We currently live in the country and take care of my Grandmother but she will soon require full-time care in a nursing home and my wife was ready to move months ago because she drives 40 minutes one way. My initial plan was to house-hack to jumpstart our real estate investing career and although my wife is open to the idea of house-hacking, we are having a difficult time finding a multi-family property in an area where we feel safe. It seems like all of the areas we would want to live are single-family only. The B or even C+ class neighborhoods just don't have any options available... and the ones that we did see at the beginning of our house hunt were snatched up before we could make an offer. We're not asking for a turnkey 2% deal or anything crazy, just something decent in a safe area. Because of the slight time crunch, my wife would like to just purchase a single-family home and worry about a rental property later. I'm sort of hesitant to purchase a single-family home because Erie isn't exactly a booming market and it would require a decent amount of our savings for something that I don't feel is an investment. We love the area (except the snow) but I don't want to make a knee-jerk decision just because we want to have our own place. My question is, what am I missing and what would you advise a friend to do in this situation? Other random information regarding this situation; our budget for a single-family would be around 80-90k but have no problem spending more than that on a solid multi-family property (up to 150k). Please let me know if you need any additional information to help provide your opinion/expertise.