Arlington REI | Moment to buy?

[Jake Van Havenaar]

I am currently trying to enter the real estate market while I am gathering enough equity for it, in doing so, I found out that a city called Arlington(next to Washington DC) has some offers that are (to me) a potential investment.

My question is only, how and where can I verify that Arlington is a good city to invest in? In addition to that, how can I determine which city/state/area is good for real estate investing?

In advance, thanks for reading and your time

[Andrew Freed]

@Jake Van Havenaar - There are successful investors and strategies in every market. It all depends on what you are looking for. A cash flow play, a equity play, some balance in between. Short term rentals, long term rentals, you're buy box will play into this question.

If you're purely looking for statistical indicators if a place is a good market to invest in in the long run, you definitely want to look at population growth. You want to ensure the place is growing since everything relies on supply and demand and the more people coming in, the more demand for assets hence increasing prices. Additionally, household income (the higher the better), quality of schools, amount of quality and diverse employers (you don't want one type of employer like in Detriot that can ruin the market). These are some of the common approaches.

My last recommendation for determining if a market has a long term growth time horizon would be to look out for certain retail companies expanding there. For instance, Starbucks or Chic-fila which have really good market research teams. If they invest in a market, they want it to have a future hence they spend millions in market research. If you're buying near a new construction starbucks or Chic-fila, there is a good chance the indicators show this is a growth market.