“Iowa’s Front Porch” Leaves the Light on for Investors by Carole VanSickle Ellis Davenport, Iowa, also affectionately dubbed “Iowa’s Front Porch,” was on the rise in 2010. It was Iowa’s third-largest city (or maybe bigger, since the municipal government later appealed the U.S. Census count...
The City “Where Florida Begins” Remains a Bright Spot in 2021 by Carole VanSickle Ellis In 1901, Jacksonville, Florida, earned the dubious title of “home to the third-largest urban fire in the United States” when The Great Fire of 1901 sparked from a kitchen chimney, ignited a fiber factory, and...
Queen City Real Estate Ramps Up in 2021 by Carole VanSickle Ellis Charlotte, North Carolina, is probably best known for banking. Despite trailing 21 other U.S. cities in size and falling firmly into the “second-tier” or 18-hour city categories in economic parlance, the Queen City is the...
The “Crossroads of the West” Boasts Enduring Strength at the Core by Carole VanSickle Ellis With a housing market holding strong in both single-family and multifamily sectors, an unemployment rate under half the national average in the last quarter of 2020, and an emerging trend in interstate...
A Strong Market is Nothing New for this Northeastern County. By: Carole VanSickle Ellis Although many aspects of the 2020 U.S. economy are in limbo—if not all-out freefall—the residential real estate sector has remained on relatively firm footing. In markets in suburban and rural areas,...
Despite COVID-19, the “Heart of Georgia” Market is Holding Strong. by Carole VanSickle Ellis Macon, Georgia, sits squarely in the geographic center of the state, a location that earned the city its nickname, “The Heart of Georgia.” And while the Georgia’s “heart” may have been historically...
The Steel City’s innovative spirit keeps the market hot under duress. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has not historically been a city of extremes. During the housing boom, the subsequent housing crash and the Great Recession of the early 2000s, property values remained largely flat relative to the...
The Northeastern market remains competitive in 2020. As with every other U.S. city, Portland, Maine, entered summer 2020 pulled in many directions. Fortunately for Portland, as the most populous city in Maine with just over 66,000 residents (according to 2019 U.S. Census estimates), some of the...
“Sin City” Real Estate Posts a Summer Surprise When COVID-19 locked down the U.S. in mid-March, analysts understandably warned that economies heavily reliant on tourism and hospitality would suffer the most. With national unemployment spiraling into the double digits and remaining above 13% in...
