We are interested in knowing something about investing in Bridgeport Ct.  Is Bridgeport a C town and how does in compare to Waterbury Ct.  Is Bridgeport appreciating?  Are thre Multi familys available in Bridgeport?  What is the price rang?  Is there a better area in Bridgeport and where is it located?  

there has been an exodus from Bpt due to the high taxes - better area is NE or even Trumbal and Stratford. there is activity renting to students.

While Waterbury is often cited as the most corrupt town in Ct there is always this kind of thing to deal with.

Hi @Barbara G. welcome to BP!  There is opportunity in Bridgeport (along with some high taxes) but there are deals made everyday and plenty of investment as well as owner occupied properties.  Are you looking as a specific type of investment?

I'd choose Bridgeport over Waterbury, I've looked at some investments there and always find the numbers to be more steady in Bridgeport.  This may be due Bpt being more commutable to NYC.

Originally posted by @Nhrai Jordan -Ferguson:

Hi @Barbara Goodman welcome to BP!  There is opportunity in Bridgeport (along with some high taxes) but there are deals made everyday and plenty of investment as well as owner occupied properties.  Are you looking as a specific type of investment?

I'd choose Bridgeport over Waterbury, I've looked at some investments there and always find the numbers to be more steady in Bridgeport.  This may be due Bpt being more commutable to NYC.

 Thanks Nhrai

We actually were afraid of Bridgeport.  We are almost finished rehabbing a duplex in Waterbury but are a little concerned about how much rent we will be able to get there.

We will take another look at Bridgport.  When you say the numbers are "more steady" in Bridgport"  what do you mean exactley?

 
We really like Danbury best but we are having difficulty finding any properties in the price range we are loooking at.

What section of Bridgeport do you recomend for Multi family Properties

Barbara

Originally posted by @Kara Haney :

there has been an exodus from Bpt due to the high taxes - better area is NE or even Trumbal and Stratford. there is activity renting to students.

While Waterbury is often cited as the most corrupt town in Ct there is always this kind of thing to deal with.

 Thank you Kara.  

Tell me something about this exodus from Bridgeport?  Where is NE Bridgeport and what zip codes is it in?
About student housing in Trumbal and Stratford?  What colleges do they cater to there?

Barbara

@Barbara G. one of the things that worried me about was the amount of blight in Waterbury.  Bridgeport isn't picture perfect, but the mill rate is (a little) lower and there are not as many areas of seemingly entire abandoned blocks of residential property.

Home prices and rents are generally higher in Bpt.  My main worry about purchasing in Waterbury in the $35k range was being able to formulate an exit strategy.  Didn't seem to be any margin to flip there as home prices seem to hover around the $30-$50k range in many of the areas I was looking.  Buy and hold didn't seem like a good option to get quality tenants.

Please don't get me wrong I've spent a lot of time driving Waterbury and researching.  Nice, stable neighborhoods do exist and I imagine deals exist as well.  My impressions were based on my investment criteria.

There are no colleges in Trumbull/Stratford.  Sacred Heart University sits on Park Ave on the Bpt/Ffld border.  If you are interested in student housing rentals in Bpt, I'd try off Madison Avenue/Park Ave area closest to the college (North End).  Blackrock and   Brooklawn are beautiful neighborhoods.  Yes, taxes are high.  There are plenty of other nearby investment options in Stratford and Shelton as well where taxes are a bit lower and schools are a bit better (a major draw for renters).

Once again, good luck and keep the questions coming!

Hi Nhrai Jordan-Ferguson

Thanks for a lot of good information.  Wish I had spoken to you before we bought this dulex in Waterbury.  I hope it works out.  We are all in for approx $112,000 plus closing costs..  We put one apartment on the market for Rent and so far no takers and we still have not finished the 2nd apartment or the garage.     We probably will have to lower the rent.  If the rent ends up too low we are in  trouble.  We thought we  we could rehab it at $25,000 but it ended up at $40,00 and maybe more.   Its a Buy and Hold.

So you buy in the $30,000 range and do you do that in Bridgeport?  Sounds good.

Hi @Barbara G. - I see you have a lot of questions about Bridgeport and Waterbury, it seems to me that you'd greatly benefit from taking a daytrip out of Hartsdale to Bridgeport then up to Waterbury to get a better feel for the cities. A lot of the replies on your threads I've been seeing have been very "street-to-street", which is absolutely accurate. Both Bridgeport and Waterbury are very rough towns, huge disparity, lots of poverty.. that being said, neighborhoods in both cities can range from warzone to A-areas. In both cities, I'd say it mostly hovers around C-areas, but Bridgeport is slightly on the up in comparison to Dirty Waters (I say this with love :P).

@David A.

  We are just researching for our next buy.  We are presently finishing up in Waterbury Ct a 2 family  duplex.  The renovation has run over $20,000 extra.  We figured and budgeted $25,000 for renovations and probably will end up at $45,000 in renovation.  On a $72,000 house that's a lot of money.  We are still hopeful but nervous.  We are in the East end of Waterbury, maybe a C+  area or hopefully a B- area.  We have a completley renovated the house but its run a 3 1/2 months renovation.   

If we survive we will be looking for our next house and wanted to know a little more about Bridgeport that we had originally written off.   Everything depends on what rent  we get in Waterbury (we would like $1,000)  and what the house appraises for.  We  are hoping for a $150,000 appraisal because that is what Zillow said it was worth.  

Our favorite Town is Danbury but we can't find anything there in our price range.

@Barbara G. I think Waterbury's a tricky area for REI unless you're looking to work in low-income, especially Section 8, housing. I am still learning about REI, but I'm from a little north of Waterbury, and am thinking of purchasing MFHs really cheap in Waterbury and making them very Section 8-friendly. That seems to be where the money is... I have a lot of friends who are maybe from Waterbury or lived there for a short time, but it really doesn't attract anybody who is looking to rent for north of even $800/month unless you're in Town Plot or a few other very small areas. Everybody I know who works or goes to school in Waterbury doesn't actually live there.