O, the ignominy! Danville, IL is in the news again…
This time, my frowsy little fly-blown hometown amends its past notoriety as the cheapest-of-the-cheap housing markets by refusing to release its abysmal sales data at all:
[T]he Danville Board of Realtors in Illinois has decided to withhold sales data from the National Association of Realtors trade group after the Danville metro area ranked as the lowest-price market in the nation during the second quarter of 2006.
“We looked into it – all avenues of what we should do,” stated Debbie Borgwald, executive officer of the Danville board, in the article. “We want to let people know Danville is a great place to live.” She also told the newspaper that the low prices for the metro area had generated negative publicity.
I personally am only interested in rental homes that will appreciate in value. It’s nice to be cash-flow neutral or even mildly positive, but all the money from residential real estate investing comes from leveraged appreciation. An “alligator” in a growth market is the world’s most lovable pet.
However… If you’re the kind of investor who likes to buy cheap dumps for the positive cash-flow that can accrue from providing affordable rental housing to motorcycle enthusiasts and tenants even less savory, by all means go to Danville. You can pick up single-family homes for $20,000 or less. The rent might only be $300 or $350, but the houses will throw off positive cash-flow no matter how you finance them. Plenty to choose from, too…
Mariana Wagner says:
Homes under $20k? Unheard of… This is a very interesting fact. I guess I never knew that a Board of Realtors could “withhold” info from NAR. Interesting. Very Interesting.
January 3, 2007 — 8:43 pm
Greg Swann says:
> Homes under $20k? Unheard of…
I can’t promise you this, but I would not be surprised if there are places in Danville (and all over the rust belt) where you could buy five abandoned SFRs for $20,000. For $50,000, you can get a turn-key tract home that should draw a premium tenant at around $600 a month. I have no idea how the Realtors survive on these numbers.
January 3, 2007 — 8:52 pm
NVmike says:
The exclusion of lower median price data from Danville will help push the median prices for the general area, the county and the state artficially higher, just in time for spring.
January 4, 2007 — 3:42 pm
mdsnyh says:
That is why you never trust these guys…
Buy and sell FSBO and make the Realtors flip burgers..
January 5, 2007 — 2:58 pm
Michael says:
Where to begin? … It is precicely this negativity that led the board to refrain from reporting. While Danville has issues, so does every community. While I lobbied against with holding our stats, continuous press reports of recent plant closing (GE and GM, both of which have been gone more than a dozen years)and depression, continued to keep a negative focus on the city.
The glory days are gone, but, Danville isn’t the dump you make it out to be. After having bottomed out the city is moving in the right direction. Many of the abandoned houses have been leveled. More are scheduled to go. Unemployment numbers are the lowest of the decade. The city continues looking for ways to reinvent itself. And I am thankful, that it isn’t the “dump” I moved to a dozen years ago.
April 6, 2007 — 9:26 pm