"QUEEN CITY" COULD SOON RULE RENTAL REAL ESTATE CAROLE VANSICKLE ELLIS
More new apartments are “going vertical” in the area now than have since 2009, which will increase
competition for that millennial demographic that values community living and tends to find centrallylocated,
lowsquarefootage apartment living highly attractive. If multifamily operators can keep costs low enough that a
renter can spend only about a third of their monthly income on rent (the conventionallydesirable threshold),
then they will have a big edge on owners who cannot keep prices below that mark. At present, about 43
percent of renters in Greater Cincinnati spend 30 percent or more of their monthly income on rent.
If all this talk of timing has you chomping at the bit to get involved in the Midwest, you’re not alone. “There’s a
convergence of new development projects taking shape in the area that make Cincinnati a perfect “path of
progress” play,” noted Bryan Blankenship, CEO at the Cincinnatibased Venture Real Estate Group.
Blankenship’s company handles turnkey investing from every angle, including rehabs, flips, and rentals. The
group also owns and operates multifamily developments in the area. He added that his company is
increasingly encountering not only individual investors, but hedge funds seeking “safe haven” from overheated
markets in Arizona, Texas, California and Florida. While this may be reassuring news for investors who like to
“follow the money” rather than forging into new territory, it does mean that the window of opportunity in
Cincinnati is certainly limited. As institutional investors move into an area, they often “price out” individual
investors by creating inflated pricing trends in attractive sectors like singlefamily residential homes and
multifamily development.