COMMUNITY INVESTOR
SPOTLIGHT: CINCINNATI
GETTING THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS So how can you have a market that is simultaneously chilly and heated? In Cincinnati – which was recently ranked as one of the worst housing markets in the country by WalletHub.com but also boasted appreciation in 95 of its 100 ZIP codes this past summer and an average boost in sales price in excess of 6 percent – the key to reading the reality of the housing market lies in identifying precisely what factors have led to the positive or negative market diagnosis. For investors, the Cincinnati metro area, and indeed much of Ohio, is rife with opportunity—and not the kind of opportunity that requires a long view and a high risk tolerance.
tion for the area, the region’s confusing market temperatures just mean that their rental properties are going to stay full and cash-flowing—and that the time might be right to pull a few more into the portfolio. Conversely, however, the real estate professionals cited throughout the general media bemoaning the lack of inventory and expressing concerns about the region’s ability to fully recover without a massive amount of new construction also have valid concerns. Fortunately for investors, if you’re in the market to own rental property, that specific market sector is steaming along at a nice, even pace with a pleasant but certainly not unsettling degree of heat. Regional history indicates that rental ownership in Cincinnati tends to be a solid investment strategy.
This housing market is still wide open for investors. If you’re a traditional- ist in that you like to buy low and sell high, limited inventory will enable you to leverage that strategy, particularly if you focus on renovating and selling properties in the $200,000 “affordable” range. Although the region has largely returned to pre-crash statistical levels, it still is experiencing higher-than-nor- mal levels of foreclosures as the Ohio delinquency backlog continues to work its way through the system and blighted “zombie” properties still plague many neighborhoods. As you might imagine, this distressed inventory represents pure opportunity for savvy investors. Furthermore, the Cincinnati popu- lation is shifting and, for the first time
60 | think realty magazine march :: april 2017
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