Owning real estate has traditionally been viewed as an effective way to hedge against inflation.

The logic is simple: as the price of goods and services increases, so does property value.

Like other types of real estate, rental properties stand to appreciate in value, but that’s hardly the only benefit of this asset class.

By investing in a long-term rental property, landlords can earn passive income, benefit from certain tax breaks and build equity while paying down a mortgage.

Plus, owning real estate has traditionally been viewed as an effective way to hedge against inflation.

With inflation on the rise nationwide, investors may be searching for new real estate markets to invest their money.

In a new study, Huntsville is ranked eighth nationwide where it pays off to buy a long-term rental property.

According to SmartAsset, a financial technology company, Huntsville has a particularly affordable housing market. In 2019, the median value of a home in the city was $185,200 (34th-lowest), while the average effective property tax rate was just 0.54%, good for 11th overall. In July, the median price was $292,000.

“The city’s population is also growing faster than housing units are being built,” the report said. “In fact, Huntsville saw population growth outpace housing unit growth by nearly 5% between 2015 and 2019, the ninth-highest rate for this metric in the study.”

SmartAsset crunched the numbers from the 120 U.S. cities with populations of 200,000 or more to gauge home investment favorability, home affordability and the health of the rental market in each.

Key Findings

Rental markets in Florida populate the top of the study. The Sunshine State has five cities in the top 20, including the No. 1 place for buying and owning long-term rental properties: Port St. Lucie. Tampa (No. 4), St. Petersburg (No. 12), Jacksonville (No. 15) and Orlando (No. 18) all earned high marks in our study, as well. All five cities rank within the top 25 (out of a total of 120 cities in the study) for the Home Investment Favorability category.
Invest in properties in Southern and Western states. Across the top 30 of the study, 14 cities are in the South and 11 cities are in the West, according to Census regional divisions. After Florida, mentioned above, Texas is the next Southern state with the highest number of cities (four) in the top 30. Arizona leads the Western states, with five cities in the top 30.