Metro Denver provided residential real estate investors with the second best returns of any major city, according to an analysis from BiggerPockets.
Dallas topped the ranking of 50 major metro areas in the country, with Denver a close second. Other hot markets in the new index included Miami, Houston and Atlanta.
At the other extreme, tough places for real estate investors were Birmingham, Ala.; Boston, New York City, Baltimore and Los Angeles.
Bigger Pockets, a social network for real estate investors based in Cherry Creek, looked at how much residential properties, not including apartments, appreciated in value between early 2014 and early 2015.
The index also measured what annual rents, as reported by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, represented as a percentage of property values.
Denver led the metros studied on that first measure, with a 13.4 percent gain in home prices. That was strong enough to overcome a weaker showing on the annual rent ratio to provide a total return of 18.9 percent, right behind Dallas at 19.5 percent.
“Some investors are looking for cash flow from rental income, while others are hoping for greater gains from appreciation,” BiggerPockets founder and CEO Joshua Dorkin said in a statement.
The best markets are those that can combine the two, he said.
The survey didn’t include real estate expenses, which can vary widely by market and alter what kind of net returns investors make.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or @aldosvaldi
