Class C I bought because I was looking at gentrification patterns near downtown and hoping those areas would go up in value over time and tenant base would become higher income - rolled the dice and not doing well so far, from talking to other investors. 

Columbus has become a major tech hub in the midwest with large companies like Intel investing $20 billion, Amazon investing $3.5 billion, Google building 2 new data centers: one in downtown Columbus and the other in right outside of U.S. 33 in Lancaster.

Other big things in the saint louis region, like the CityPark soccer stadium in the downtown region which costed over 450 million dollars and was completed in late 2022, shows that growth is possible and is happening in many ways around the city. 

Condos downtown are affordable, but that adds HOA and taxes can easily hit 8k.I visited Farragut/Marryville TN. 

I can't speak for STR as I don't specialize in that but I do have a client with a 5/3.5 STR close to downtown FTL and it is very BUSY so if you have the right type of property and location, you can do well in any market.

Usually they want to stay more downtown, but since a lot of rentals don't allow them, they may book in your area.  

I’ve used a company downtown for staging before, so I’ll look for their info.

A lot of recent college grads prefer areas like Lakeview, Lincoln Park and Old Town... but condo prices will also be much higher there than in the Loop.If you're hoping to rent the condo out after you move out of it... this is limited or pretty much prohibited with many HOAs downtown.

Generally downtown areas are higher in crime but comes with other advantage. 

It's basically already collapsed in many coastal downtown areas, San Francisco being the worst.