Daily Real Estate News  |  December 28, 2007  |   Developers Target Run-Down Neighborhoods
Where can a prudent real estate investor look for value and return now that preferred locations have plateaued or even declined?

For some, the answer is still undervalued urban areas.

Buffalo, N.Y., for instance, is undergoing renewal and attracting investment as city fathers woo bioinformatics and human genome research companies to the downtown area.

"Property in Buffalo is ripe for the picking. It's still possible to get in on the ground floor here," says Anthony Kissling, director of Kissling Interests, a 100-year-old New York City investment firm. Kissling owns 20 buildings in Buffalo with 800 apartments, all of which are rented.

In suburban Dallas, developers are spending $1.3 billion in public and private money to rehab Oak Cliff, a gritty neighborhood built on the western shore of the Trinity River. The river bank itself is being turned into a park two times the size of New York’s Central Park, complete with hiking and biking paths, equestrian center, arboretum, and wildlife refuge.

Oak Cliff is defying the national housing slump, says Dallas planning and development consultant Jeff West, president of Jeff West Consulting. "Speculators already are moving through Oak Cliff one block at a time," he says.

Source: Investor’s Business Daily, David DeVoss (12/27/07)