The appreciation rate in Columbus has been 8% higher than the national average over the last year.

Comparable to other houses in the area I am only $100 more on average, my house is rehabbed and ready to go compared to those other houses.

Unless this is fully renovated, you can expect an average of 10% for maintenance and you should set aside another 10% for capex.

I did some research using Zillow and realtor.com to see if there’s over saturation, average prices for purchase and average rent.

Hopefully, this provides perspective.Keep in mindThe Fed started hiking rates in March 2022, and only stopped tightening in July 2023, having lifted short-term interest rates by 525 basis points or 5.25%.Average 30-yr mortgage rates started moving aggressively upward a bit earlier (in January 2022) and only peaked (at just over 8%) in October 2023.

Texas added nearly half a million people, a 1.5% gain, or three times the national average. 2023 2022-2023 % Population State Population Change Change (2022–23) South Carolina 5,373,555 90,600 1.71% Florida 22,610,726 365,205 1.64% Texas 30,503,301 473,453 1.58% Idaho 1,964,726 25,730 1.33% North Carolina 10,835,491 139,526 1.30% Delaware 1,031,890 12,431 1.22% District of Columbia** 678,972 8,023 1.20% Tennessee 7,126,489 77,513 1.10% Utah 3,417,734 36,498 1.08% Georgia 11,029,227 116,077 1.06% South Dakota 919,318 9,449 1.04% Arizona 7,431,344 65,660 0.89% Montana 1,132,812 9,934 0.88% Oklahoma 4,053,824 34,553 0.86% Arkansas 3,067,732 21,328 0.70% Alabama 5,108,468 34,565 0.68% North Dakota 783,926 5,014 0.64% Colorado 5,877,610 36,571 0.63% Nevada 3,194,176 16,755 0.53% Nebraska 1,978,379 10,319 0.52% Maine 1,395,722 6,384 0.46% Indiana 6,862,199 29,925 0.44% Wyoming 584,057 2,428 0.42% Virginia 8,715,698 36,599 0.42% Minnesota 5,737,915 23,615 0.41% Washington 7,812,880 28,403 0.36% Wisconsin 5,910,955 20,412 0.35% Kentucky 4,526,154 14,591 0.32% New Jersey 9,290,841 30,024 0.32% Missouri 6,196,156 18,988 0.31% Massachusetts 7,001,399 18,659 0.27% Maryland 6,180,253 16,272 0.26% Iowa 3,207,004 7,311 0.23% Connecticut 3,617,176 8,470 0.23% New Hampshire 1,402,054 3,051 0.22% Ohio 11,785,935 26,238 0.22% Rhode Island 1,095,962 2,120 0.19% Kansas 2,940,546 3,830 0.13% Vermont 647,464 354 0.05% New Mexico 2,114,371 895 0.04% Michigan 10,037,261 3,980 0.04% Mississippi 2,939,690 762 0.03% Alaska 733,406 130 0.02% Loss Pennsylvania 12,961,683 -10,408 -0.08% Oregon 4,233,358 -6,021 -0.14% California 38,965,193 -75,423 -0.19% West Virginia 1,770,071 -3,964 -0.22% Illinois 12,549,689 -32,826 -0.26% Hawaii 1,435,138 -4,261 -0.30% Louisiana 4,573,749 -14,274 -0.31% Puerto Rico* 3,205,691 -14,422 -0.45% New York 19,571,216 -101,984 -0.52%

They also Zoned Away many multifamily units that are 2-4 units starting in the 1980s on average.

@Chi Sastry,I think Tennessee is generally a good state to buy in, though I will note that the 10 markets you listed are very different in terms of demographics, average rents, home prices, yields, and so on.Of this list, I’m most familiar with Chattanooga so I’ll offer a few details.

I invested in 11 of their projects, each with the same dollar amount as a way to diversify my real estate holdings.  8 of the projects paid off completely with an average annual return around 8.5-9%. 

There's still the elements of 1) there's not a lot of 2-4 unit properties in comparison to SFH and 2) the average family doesn't want to purchase a 2-4 unit property.