Desirable today...but tomorrow?

[Josh Teunissen]

I purchased a duplex built in 1989. It's my first home/investment. Its in an area that today people generally want to live, the other homes are kept in nice condition and new homes are still being built only a few streets behind. 

My question stemmed somewhat from the dead horse debate of appreciation vs. Cash flow but I don't want to debate that here. 

My home is almost 30 years old. When we look at buy and hold, we think about holding for a long time. So I thought what is the market for my home/rental market going to look like in another 30 years? 

The first obvious thing (at least for me) to do is look at the market for today's 60 yr old properties. Or properties built in 1957. Now I haven't yet done this as I've only just begun to question, but a rough draft view of 50's properties is lack of maitenance, lower income renters, toys littering the front yard kind of stuff.

I would really like to hear from seasoned investors who have been around to see these changes or hopefully lack of changes. I presume that much of the thought regarding this is decided prior to purchase? I live in the Midwest, so we don't have fast moving money and big money gentrification to over night change an area.

However, if the population of the world doubles every 40yrs, we could see more rapid change in some way or another.

I'm not trying to ask a crystal ball question. More how are other investers looking at the future of their properties and neihboor hoods as they age. I think likely someone else has seen this play out as real estate investing is not a new idea and I think in many instances we can look to the past for clues. 

Thanks in advance,

~Josh