Quote from @Alex Bock:
Quote from @Genesis Duncan:
Quote from @Alex Bock:
All great markets! Speaking for Iowa, I would recommend Cedar Rapids over Davenport.
An Iowa investor! I was hoping someone would jump into this thread with an Iowa opinion. I'm curious what your perspective is though since I see you're in Davenport. Will you please share your thoughts?
I've lived in the Quad Cities most of my life. I love it here!
I see you've specified you're looking to stay on the Iowa side of the river, which I think is a wise choice. I am not sure what kind of properties you're looking to invest in, but I see you've mentioned you're going for cash flow. Your options in the Iowa Quad Cities are going to be Davenport, Bettendorf, and our surrounding mostly newer suburbs, which tend to be more expensive and less likely to cash flow. Bettendorf is mostly owner occupied and newer than Davenport, so that rule also applies to most of it as well. With all of this in mind, it is likely you would end up buying properties in Davenport.
Unfortunately, I don't think Davenport is headed in the same direction as Cedar Rapids and other Iowa metros. Without going into too much detail, we had a mid-rise apartment building in our downtown collapse a little over a year ago which very sadly killed 3 of our residents. You can read more about it
here if you're interested. Ever since then, in my opinion, the level of incompetence and back room dealings that have been exposed in our city government has been pretty disappointing. There have been several lawsuits filed against our city by the victims, estates, etc. that I believe the city is on the losing end of, and are likely to affect the city's long-term finances. It is also my opinion that our city rental inspection department has been especially unfair with out of state investors lately, and is trying to blame everyone except themselves for our deteriorating old housing stock. Add in that our violent crime rate is almost 2x that of Cedar Rapid's, and our property management options are terrible, that is how I arrived at my answer! I hope things start improving here in Davenport, my goal isn't to trash our city... But it's just the reality of things here right now.
While far from perfect, Cedar Rapids seems to have a better city government and has the advantage of being in-land Iowa. I believe this leaves you with more housing stock to choose from because you aren't in an area surrounded by Illinois. I also think the quality of the housing stock is better in Cedar Rapids because it's a newer area. They had a huge flood 16+ years ago that cleaned out a lot of their problem areas and spurred some much needed reinvestment into the city. In terms of the economies of Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities, they're pretty similar. Cedar Rapids has the advantage of being a short commute away from Iowa City, which is where the University of Iowa is located. This attracts a lot of students and employees that make the commute from Cedar Rapids.
I hope this was helpful!
This is extremely helpful. Thank you. My husband is from CR, so we're there every year or two. Since the flood the inner SE has changed for the better IMO. NewBo brought some much-needed life to that area and dare I say, made it a bit cool? Lol
CR is a little sleepier than I'm used to, but I like that it's pretty much stable, folks are nice, and it has diversification in industry. Plus as you say, the proximity to Iowa City, especially since the IC and CR areas are growing towards each other with North Liberty, etc.
I'll be in Davenport for the first time next week, so it will be interesting to see it with your commentary in my mind. It's a shame about that apartment collapse! It sounds like the city ignored a lot of complaints about structural concerns from tenants for years, which is concerning. Especially since there seems to be a lot of older housing stock as you point out.
