Originally posted by @Jiri B.:
@Joseph Shevy i will try to answer your question in a bit different way then what you can expect, but will pretty much apply for any market / location..
- the higher the price, the nicer the location (so depends on your budget, you will see where you can lend or how much you want to spend)
- as for investment property, you can just simply look at sites like Zillow and look at property value vs estimated rent. The better the ratio, the better the cashflow. Simple math. Then again, the higher the purchase price / rent, the nicer the location but the lower the cashflow or even negative cashflow at that point.
Typically, you will get better returns with lower priced properties. Eg, 3beds, 2bath for 220k that rents for $1500/mo then purchasing a nicer home for 350k, that only rents for $2,000/mo. Typical ratio right now is about 0.7
Multiunit properties are not very common here in the south (quad duplex etc) although you can find duplexes more often.
What works best for me are SFH homes in the 200k-300k range that rents around 1,400-1,800/mo or townhomes around 150k mark that rents for around 1,200/mo (but can have high HOA).
I echo what Jiri said, and this will point you towards properties generally outside of 440/40.
One word of caution, based on my recent anecdotal review of Zillow property value estimates, they seem to be 10-20% off of actual market values. I think Zillow uses a pure play $/sqft value, based on data which may include refinances, and does not accurately adjust for comparable sales.
As for appreciation, we have a strong market down here but per usual it's hard to predict where prices will actually be in one, three, five years etc. On the plus side, there is less room for price contraction than in many other leading national markets.
