Anyone else realize that it costs *more* to live in the rat race? Like NYC for example. It costs more, and the quality of the rat race life is less (same with 2hr commute each way in LA). Now, let me see, it costs more and is worse. Hmmmm, don't tell me, I have an MBA (really), I can figure this out. I'll go with the medium size town in the sunbelt. I've lived in a huge city for over 10 years. There's nothing to do. Everything is hermetically sealed. (Hope you don't have to go to the bathroom in NYC - patrons only). You only go out to eat (as if you have to go somewhere to do that), or see a movie - which is just big TV. They almost got me on museums - they're terrific, but I only did that 4 times a year. Go outside in Montana and there's a million real things to do.
I've been to lookout mountain as well. Chattanooga, now there is a city that really surprised me. I use to drive through there on my way to college during the holidays and I loved driving up through the hills. If you didn't know any better, you would think you were in the Hollywood Hills in CA. Only the homes were nice and 1/10th the cost.
How about trying to find apartment complexes with a cap rate above 10% Difficult but not impossible. This is probably a better investment than sf homes in LA. comments?
I moved out of NJ about a year ago and went to the Atlanta area. Homes are cheap here and the weather beats NJ.
Actually the "poor immigrants" bought houses in the last few years. They have 10 -20 people per house, probably 5-10 incomes, to make the vig and they are happy. That is who drove the prices up in my area. They are pretty good neighbors for the most part too. It helps to speak Spanish here in Southern Calif. nowadays but their second gen kids speak english. That is one reason you can't just grab them all and say "back to where you came from", not after you let them completely settle. The Mexican govt would do that to US citizens of course
I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that most commercial investments in places like LA and NYC have cap rates between 5-7%. I heard this was due to the weak dollar and low interest rates in the past few years. Maybe the trend is changing? I would like to here your thoughts.