Matthew: What’s up, everybody? Matthew Whitaker back here with another “Where to Invest in Chattanooga” episode with my man, Alex Smith. (Where to Invest in Downtown Chattanooga)
Places to Invest in Chattanooga
Alex: What’s up, everybody?
Matthew: We have already done a video on the general areas that people invest in regarding Chattanooga. Today we want to start digging into some of the areas that we talked about in the previous video, specifically downtown.
The cool thing about downtown Chattanooga is it has a lot of diversity. There are some really nice areas and some areas that are undergoing gentrification. I think people are most familiar with the areas around the Tennessee Aquarium and the Museum of American Art. These are right along the river.
Alex: There is the aquarium and a couple different museums in that area. In terms of housing, you are going to find 100% condos. These condos are very nice, ranging from low thousands to high two thousands. A lot of young professionals will call this area home.
Matthew: This is a really cool area. One awesome feature is the walking bridge that takes you to the North Shore area. In the North Shore area there are unique shops and nice restaurants. Pretty much everything is walkable which gives it a unique downtown vibe.
Now let’s jump over to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and talk about what investing in that area looks like.
Alex: Around the university, Fort Wood and Martin Luther King, you are going to find a pretty decent combination of condos/apartments/houses. Your tenant population is going to be mostly students. These students mainly want a short walk or drive to school. You also have the hospital close by. The hospital is regional so you will have all kinds of tenants coming from all over to be close to the hospital. there is also the Chattanooga Choo Choo. There you will find a ton of delicious restaurants. There will be a lot of people visiting the city to go to either north of the city or this particular area right here with the university, hospital and the Chattanooga Choo Choo.
In regards to housing, if you are not renting a condo/apartment or small student-type housing, you will most likely be dealing with a historic home.
Matthew: This is an awesome area to invest in because it is undergoing a lot of revitalization.
Now we are going to talk about the east area of Chattanooga. Here you will find the Zoo, Orchard Village, Orchard Knob, and Highland Park.
Alex: When Matthew mentioned areas undergoing gentrification earlier, this is where it is going to be. On one street you might have houses that have been flipped and fixed up for young families. On another street you may have houses that are looking for someone to come in and flip them. The quality of properties here is going to be across the board.
Another thing to note here is the word on the street is that the public schools are not great in this area as a whole, more specifically downtown. Another thing to note is you will find some good Section 8 housing if that is what you are looking for.
Matthew: So in this downtown area, we mentioned earlier, there is incredibly diverse housing. There are professionals and also Section 8 housing.
Let’s head west towards the National Cemetery and into the south side historic district.
Alex: Most of the houses here are going to be huge historic type homes built a long time ago. Because of this there is not a ton of rental potential.
Matthew: So, obviously, the Tennessee River running through the city is an important part of the city’s history. People love to live where they can see the river. There are multiple mountains around this downtown area providing some awesome views. The Tennessee River and the mountains provide some natural resources and more detail into where to invest in Downtown Chattanooga.
Alex: A couple things to mention about Chattanooga. So according to Forbes, Chattanooga was tied sixth nationwide for cities where jobs are going to be for 2019. Another important point is that Volkswagen is building a new plant specifically for their electric cars that’s going to open in the next few years. This will be built out east, north of Ooltewah, right off of 75.
So there is a lot of potential for a huge influx of people moving to the city for one reason or another. With that being said, this is a perfect time to get into investing in Chattanooga.
Alex: Yes, so my number is 423-648-7368. Feel free to contact me with any questions!
Matthew: Awesome. Thank you all and we hope we were able to provide some insight into where to invest in Downtown Chattanooga.
Matthew is the CEO of Evernest. He is a student of the book Good to Great and is passionate about building the best property management company on the planet (and maybe even the universe if Elon Musk will hurry up). You can usually find Matthew at the baseball field with his son, at a dance recital with his daughter, or at his favorite restaurant with his wife, when he’s not in the office. And if you can’t find him in any of those places, it probably means he’s traveling.
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