Garner? Really?

Yes, Garner.

Wait, what's the question? Is this Jeopardy?

The question is: what Triangle market do you see as perhaps the most under-valued? We know Inside the Beltline, North Raleigh and Cary are strong rental markets. The value there is very evident. Garner though, doesn't get thought about too much. But it should.

Garner has grown up like a lot of the smaller Beltline border towns. It has established, affordable single-family neighborhoods surrounding an older but very functional downtown and of course, waves of big box retail and regional centers growing into the space in between. Thus, older apartment properties now have Wal-Marts, Wachovias, office buildings and Starbucks closer than ever before. As infill projects continue to permeate around the older homes and apartments, their values will continue to climb.

As Cary and Wake Forest erect fences to the West and North of Raleigh, Garner seems to be laying pavement and waving welcome banners. Rents are still very affordable for a large swath of the renter market in properties that offer many of the amenities of those found in North Raleigh: national retail chains, places to work, restaurants and schools.

So yeah, Garner is not a bad place in which to own rental property. Appreciation clearly won't be what you might find in Cary or within I-440. But the chance for cash-flow is that much better.