Houston’s healthy job market and relatively affordable home prices have landed the city on a list of the best markets in which to buy a single-family home as a rental property.
Dallas-based HomeVestors of America Inc.— the “We Buy Ugly Houses” company — and North Carolina-based Local Market Monitor ranked Houston the No. 5 housing market in the country for investing in single-family homes.
However, that’s provided aspiring investors can get their hands on a home — the local inventory is the lowest seen in more than a decade.
Meanwhile, fellow Texas markets Fort Worth and Dallas topped the list.
Ingo Winzer, president and founder of Local Market Monitor, said in a statement that many of the best markets for such investments are in Texas and Oklahoma due to “their low unemployment rates and ability to profit for years from new shale oil and gas developments.”
Here are the top 10 markets:
“We think the markets hold considerable opportunities for investors as long as they do not over pay for properties,” David Hicks, HomeVestors co-president, said in the statement. “Only seven of the top 100 markets continue to be ranked as ‘speculative.’”
The bottom markets include Los Angeles; Gary, Ind.; Providence, R.I.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Toledo, Ohio; Cleveland; Birmingham, Ala.; Detroit; and New Haven, Conn.