@Matt J., Encouraged by your interest in Pueblo. I’m a native and this is my 2 cents. While Pueblo has seen incredible price growth, I would caution that the market fundamentals for the area do not keep pace with the rest of urban Colorado. I would encourage you to think of Pueblo, Colorado as physically on Colorado’s front range, spiritually in the rust belt somewhere around Cleveland, and culturally in northern New Mexico. We are very proud of a heritage that includes a heavy concentration of diverse global ethic groups with a unifying agricultural and industrial/manufacturing heritage. Truly a rare bird. But decades of high unemployment from globalization and the attendant generational welfare dependence and despair have done a lot of trauma to places like ours. It will take perhaps a full generation of “good times” for that trauma to wear off.
Many of the underlying indicators that investors look for like education, school quality, wages, workforce, and job growth are abysmal. Today's reasonable looking rents are surprisingly unaffordable with the median renter's income, a sad fact you'll encounter every time you lease a property and look at the applications. I’ll go on record as saying the price growth you are talking about is overflow from points north, not sustainable or based on any endemic economic activity, and won’t continue much longer. Just as you would probably prefer to buy northward but are looking at Pueblo because it seems reasonable by comparison, retail home buyers are making the same calculation. What will you and they do in a market correction?
There are bright spots. The city has some inspired leadership, finally elected a strong mayor with a clear mission, is notably reducing crime, and has proven much more resilient than many of its industrial peer cities where unemployment, generational welfare dependence, opioid abuse, etc. have been worse. And there is lots of vacant land that can be subdivided with new housing tracts for retirees a la Tucson once Pueblo West fills up.
Crucially, the school district is bad and not improving. That is the real crux. This will continue to handicap the area because the high paying 21st century jobs will continue to accrue in places with a workforce suited to their demands. The number one objection of employers seeking to relocate their firms to Pueblo is the school district. Places like Pueblo have historically not made the investments they need in workforce development or in schools or culturally prioritized education. The meritocratic worldview you find in places like Boulder is often treated alternatively with scorn and suspicion.
In sum, Workforce Drives Employment Opportunities Drives Wages Drives price growth. There's a reason it seems comparably “cheap.”
All that said, if you find a deal in a good area (and there are many great, beautiful areas) that will cash flow And screen your tenants well you Can do OK here and knock off some serious mortgage principle over the years. Just don’t expect to see any more appreciation. In fact, I suspect with some inevitable macroeconomic correction that values will soon take a bellyflop.
