At the $1 million level properties and markets are going to be hyper local. You will need to drill down deep on demographics and propo financials to get a good understanding. Most investors are not traveling far for these smaller properties.
The South and Midwest are large regions. Florida also has many distinct markets. I would suggest picking a couple of markets and get to know them very well. Keep in mind, there are some "good" deals in some tertiary Midwestern towns, but you might be buying into a regional decline. For creating future value, pick a market that is stronger.
At the $1 million level properties and markets are going to be hyper local. You will need to drill down deep on demographics and propo financials to get a good understanding. Most investors are not traveling far for these smaller properties.
Hey @David Smith do you have any connections in any of those markets? Family in any of them? If so, it could be beneficial to focus there. If not, I'd read several market reports and pick 1-2 markets you'd like to focus on based on their numbers. Personally, I'm in favor of FL and the South East.
A good podcast to checkout would be "Target Market Insights" by John Casmon.
Others have made great points already, that you should drill down into a couple of MSAs/specific markets to compare.
If I were to respond more directly, I would mainly avoid Florida. Florida real estate got whacked hard during the last recession, perhaps that could happen again?
I just did a job transfer ( by choice family reasons) from huntsville alabama the economy in huntsville is starting to really expand so all those people in those new jobs are going to need some type of housing bottom line is look for markets where large employers have moved into look at ecconomic groath for your desired areas
When I analyze a market, the first thing I'm looking at is job growth. I want to see above the national average, and what kind of jobs they are. Then, I focus on population growth, same as job growth, I want to see above the national average and definitely no decline. Often I find if jobs are flowing to an area, the population growth is there as well.
There are a lot of factors that I would look into after that, but those are two good ones you can figure out real quick and decide if those are markets you would be interested in drilling deeper into.
Hope that helps, reach out if I can do anything else to help.
Seems like people already went over the important stuff, esp @Nicholas Ameluxen. He's 100% right - employment growth and some say family formation even more important than general population growth and then it gets deeper from there. So I only know about Florida and other markets I invest in. Florida got very expensive. It has high population growth in many markets. Now - you want to beware of some markets that are agriculture-heavy. I don't know how strong they would remain. In my opinion if you have $1 mil to work with you should be able to get into high quality situation. If I misread and you're looking for a $1 mil property, then you should still have good options. In my humble opinion certain markets in Florida will continue to be a strong market. I would highly recommend you read a book called Big Shifts Ahead - excellent read on demographic changes in the US
@Ethan Smith it all depends on where you are in Florida. For example, South Florida is very different from where I am in Central Florida (Brevard County / east coast, etc.). If it were me, I would determine exactly what I am looking for, and from there start to find exactly that.