{"id":13066,"date":"2019-01-30T13:33:46","date_gmt":"2019-01-30T18:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/?p=13066"},"modified":"2019-01-30T13:33:46","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T18:33:46","slug":"is-money-less-green-in-hartford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/30\/is-money-less-green-in-hartford\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Money Less Green in Hartford?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m perplexed. It appears that money available to be earned in Hartford is less valuable than money that can be earned in West Hartford. Even though that goes against the basic idea that a dollar is a dollar.<\/p>\n<p>We have a 2-unit building for sale in Hartford that is quite close to the West Hartford town line. For those interested in the specifics, it&#8217;s at <a href=\"https:\/\/smartmls.mlsmatrix.com\/matrix\/shared\/bPq51tmxCs\/307NewParkAvenue\">307 New Park Avenue<\/a>, which is across the street from the movie theater and just south of I84.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/307-309-New-Park-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"307-309 New Park Ave, Hartford\" width=\"840\" height=\"560\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-12897\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/307-309-New-Park-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/307-309-New-Park-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/307-309-New-Park-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/307-309-New-Park-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/307-309-New-Park.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That location is not closely linked to any Hartford neighborhood. In fact, the closest residential enclave to the homes on this triangle of land is in West Hartford.<\/p>\n<p>What confuses me is that investor buyers aggressively pursue properties in West Hartford, but they don&#8217;t seem interested in a building a block away that is similar in layout and vintage, and has better economics.<\/p>\n<p>Only four 2-unit buildings sold south of the highway in West Hartford over the past year. The table below compares those buildings to our listing.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2019-01-29-Comparing-Two-Unit-Deals.png\" alt=\"2019-01-29 Comparing Two-Unit Deals\" width=\"791\" height=\"146\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13070\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2019-01-29-Comparing-Two-Unit-Deals.png 791w, https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2019-01-29-Comparing-Two-Unit-Deals-300x55.png 300w, https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2019-01-29-Comparing-Two-Unit-Deals-768x142.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 791px) 100vw, 791px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Rental income is not available for all the properties on the list. However, the actual rent our listing generates is in line with two properties that sold in the $260,000s. We&#8217;re only asking $209,900 &#8230; and our property taxes are much lower. Our listing has the most favorable ratio of income to expenses, by a long shot.<\/p>\n<p>Why the big difference in value?<\/p>\n<p>It could be that the buildings have different attractiveness to owner-occupants, but most West Hartford buildings are purchased as investments. So the buyer is unlikely to live in any of these properties.<\/p>\n<p>The tenants pay their own utilities in our listing, so that&#8217;s not a hidden expense to the investor owner that is holding back our price.<\/p>\n<p>The condition of the property is fine, so it&#8217;s not like we&#8217;re marketing a place in poor shape. Tenants generally ensure that the rent they pay reflects the condition anyway, and we know the rents.<\/p>\n<p>Investments in the Hartford multi-family market have even shown better appreciation over the past few years. Median prices increased 32% compared to 4%.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2019-01-29-Two-Unit-Deals-in-West-Hartford-versus-Hartford.png\" alt=\"2019-01-29 Two-Unit Deals in West Hartford versus Hartford\" width=\"680\" height=\"313\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13071\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2019-01-29-Two-Unit-Deals-in-West-Hartford-versus-Hartford.png 680w, https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/2019-01-29-Two-Unit-Deals-in-West-Hartford-versus-Hartford-300x138.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It is interesting to note that our $209,900 asking is a lower price than any West Hartford 2-unit building sold for since 2016.<\/p>\n<p>I must be missing something in this analysis&#8230;<br \/>\nA.) The building is barely outside of West Hartford.<br \/>\nB.) Actual tenants pay strong monthly rents and utilities.<br \/>\nC.) Market appreciation has been strong in Hartford.<\/p>\n<p>There is money to be made by operating 307 New Park Avenue as an investment property. More money than buying a similar vintage 2-unit building a block away in West Hartford.<\/p>\n<p>Is money less green in Hartford?<\/p>\n<p><em>Note: All data is from the CTMLS, and deemed reliable but not guaranteed. It represents multi-unit properties marketed as 2-unit buildings. One West Hartford property that was a commercial use simultaneously marketed as a 2-unit was removed from the data set.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m perplexed. It appears that money available to be earned in Hartford is less valuable than money that can be earned in West Hartford. Even though that goes against the basic idea that a dollar is a dollar. We have a 2-unit building for sale in Hartford that is quite close to the West Hartford town line. For those interested in the specifics, it&#8217;s at 307 New Park Avenue, which is across the street from<\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a class=\"myButt three\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/30\/is-money-less-green-in-hartford\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1578,1580,1600],"tags":[4077],"class_list":["post-13066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hartford","category-housing-prices","category-west-hartford","tag-income-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13066"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13083,"href":"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13066\/revisions\/13083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amybergquist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}