With the housing sector recovery on what appears to be a sustainable path, investors are starting to feel like the deals of the recession are behind them. Housing affordability is becoming a problem for both prospective owners and investors. Foreclosures, particularly in popular metros, are becoming increasingly harder to find. Even tight mortgage underwriting is making it harder to buy a house. However, there remains a silver lining on the horizon. Contrary to popular belief, there are still plenty of areas that offer respectable profit margins for investors of every level. Redfin has identified 10 neighborhoods, in particular, that warrant our attention.
Redfin, a popular real estate valuation site, recently announced its annual list of the hottest neighborhoods across the country. More precisely, the release of this list acknowledges Redfin’s top neighborhoods to watch in 2014. As members of this prestigious list, these neighborhoods are expected to do well in 2014.
According to the online real estate brokerage, the following neighborhoods should provide entrepreneurs in the real estate industry with an encouraging investment opportunity. Following, are the top 10 hottest neighborhoods across the United States. The ranking is based on the neighborhoods’ relative growth in popularity, measured by Redfin.com home listing page views and Favorites between September and December 2013, compared with those during the same period in 2012:
- Bernal Heights North Slope (San Francisco, Calif.)
- Eagle Rock (Los Angeles, Calif.)
- Morningside-Lenox Park (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Upper Chevy Chase (Washington, D.C.)
- Desert Shores (Las Vegas, Nev.)
- Barrington Oaks (Austin, Texas)
- Phinney Ridge (Seattle, Wash.)
- Concordia (Portland, Ore.)
- City Park (Denver, Colo.)
- Humboldt Park (Chicago, Ill.)
“After a year in which prices popped 13 percent, Americans are checking out still-close-in but often-overlooked neighborhoods in search of affordability, even if means less-fashionable restaurants or a home that needs a little more work,” said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman in a statement. “The buyers who have made these alternative spots so hot aren’t like the ones we saw in the last boom, who just borrowed more and paid up. Our clients in 2014 have settled on a price range, and they’re sticking to it.”
Redfin compiled this list of neighborhoods after analyzing hundreds of millions of pages its website users visited and homes they added as “favorites” to monitor for price changes or sales. Moreover, the neighborhoods reflect the opinions of hundreds of Redfin real estate agents that acknowledge these neighborhoods have a lot of potential for price appreciation.
While no profits are guaranteed in the real estate industry, these neighborhoods are projected to become the beneficiary of encouraging appreciation rates in 2014. With that being said, these areas may warrant the attention of investors across the country. Proactive investors that stay ahead of their competition may be rewarded accordingly.
