All Forum Posts by: Eric C.

I originally moved from California to Casper, Wyoming (don't move to Casper) thinking that I would miss the beach but I grew up surfing in the Pacific and, once I moved away from the coast, I realized that I just didn't miss it like I thought I would. I found that the low density living and abundance of land made people behave differently toward each other (more humanely), which more than compensated for the lack of large bodies of water.

I ended up in Wellington, which is located about an hour and a half north of Denver and 15 minutes north of Fort Collins and I love it here. This is a small town populated by about 8,000 people with massive, new residential construction going on right now and probably for the next 20 years- an excellent investment opportunity, as I see it. I bought one of these houses in late 2014 and it has increased in value from $222,000 to $290,000 in 2.5 years, so I'm buying another one on Monday for $300,000. I am renting my current house out for $1,700 per month, which will provide great cash flow.

UPS plans to build a distribution center in the area, Google plans to build a headquarters near Denver, and there are dozens of new neighborhoods being built as I write this. I want to specify that I live in Wellington but I am talking generally about Northern Colorado.

I wanted to provide some specific financials because they are important when considering an area as an investment opportunity but, more importantly, the people that I've encountered in Colorado are warm and friendly compared to the stereotypical Southern Californian.

This reply turned out lengthier than expected but I hope it helps. Feel free to contact me if you want to.

 While DC is one of the most expensive markets in nominal value, somewhere between 3rd and 5th most expensive depending what list you look at...when measured against the areas income, it is actually quite affordable compared to the top 10 or 15 or so cities.  In the DC area we have 10 of the richest 20 counties (top 11 if DC were a county) as by measured by median income.  Take the San Francisco metro area for instance, most expensive market in the country with a median home price at $700k, but with a median household income of around $88k versus DC area with a median home somwhere around $475k with a median household income of $93k.  DC then with a higher income and much lower price is a lot more affordable.  This pretty much is the case with all the other expensive metro areas, our higher income here (not to even mention lower energy costs) create a situation where yes our homes are expensive, but are affordable.

Yes I use my 2 additional rooms in my Arlington home and I was using my Arlington condo as an Airbnb until the HOA banned short term rentals so I turned that into a corporate rental where I make the same amount of money as Airbnb. North Arlington and central Dallas are super hot Airbnb rental areas.