{"id":5564,"date":"2023-10-26T09:32:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T09:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/finance\/americas-no-1-emerging-real-estate-market-is-in-kansas-life-is-easy-over-here\/"},"modified":"2023-10-26T09:32:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T09:32:23","slug":"americas-no-1-emerging-real-estate-market-is-in-kansas-life-is-easy-over-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=5564","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s No. 1 emerging real-estate market is in Kansas. \u2018Life is easy over here.\u2019\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
Being born and raised in a big city, Prateek Ghatage, 35, didn\u2019t expect himself to be buying his first home in a smaller city in the Midwest.<\/p>\n
The infectious-disease physician, who grew up in Mumbai, India (population: 12.5 million), had just finished a fellowship in Vermont and moved to work at a local hospital in Topeka, Kan., in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Ghatage had considered buying a home when he moved during the pandemic, browsing through Zillow \n ZG, \n -2.95%<\/bg-quote>,<\/span> \n trying to contact agents to set up appointments, and attending some open houses. But he never really sunk his teeth into the process, and opted to rent instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have a plan to buy. I had just come back from India a few months ago, and thought I was going to continue with the [rental] lease,\u201d which was up for renewal in early August, Ghatage told MarketWatch.<\/p>\n
But when a nurse at his hospital asked him why he was renting a home for $1,350 when he could be paying the same amount toward a mortgage, a light went off in his head.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the last couple of years, I\u2019ve tried to buy, but I was very new to the area,\u201d Ghatage said. \u201cThe whole thing was really new to me.\u201d At the time, he also had difficulties getting in touch with listing agents as well as mortgage lenders.<\/p>\n
The colleague offered to introduce him to her friend, who was a real-estate agent. Ghatage accepted, and he began house hunting.<\/p>\n
The doctor is far from alone in choosing to buy in Topeka. In fact, the city is one of the hottest emerging real-estate markets in the U.S., according to the WSJ\/Realtor.com\u00ae Fall 2023 Emerging Housing Markets Index, released Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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Looking at the top 300 most populous metro areas and analyzing them by a number of factors including a city\u2019s economic health and quality of life, unemployment trends, wages, cost of living and projected home-price appreciation, the real-estate company ranked Topeka as the No. 1 emerging market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other cities in the Midwest made the top five, including Elkhart-Goshen, Ind., Oshkosh-Neenah, Wis., Fort Wayne, Ind., and Lafayette-West Lafayette, Ind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n The Top 20 Emerging Markets for Fall 2023, according to Realtor.com<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Some of the key reasons why the Midwest is considered an \u201cemerging\u201d housing hot spot are its affordable housing as well as its relatively low cost of living. While the national median home price in September was $430,000, the typical home in Topeka, for instance, was just $250,000 \u2014 42% less.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Liesel Kirk-Fink, a Topeka-based real-estate agent with Kirk & Cobb Inc. who worked with Ghatage, told MarketWatch that homes priced within the range of $150,000 and $250,000 are particularly hot in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at a $250,000 [house] and people are competing for it,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople are buying as-is, no inspections, paying over asking price. \u2026 These homes are going very fast.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
See also: <\/strong>Peek inside Travis Kelce\u2019s magnificent new mansion near Kansas City<\/p>\n
Kirk-Fink, who grew up in Topeka, said that part of the allure of the city was the lower cost of living for those who are considering moving from more expensive areas. There are also many employers there \u2014 from a new mall operator to the Frito-Lay \n PEP, \n +0.10%<\/bg-quote> \n plant to medical institutions. Topeka, with a population of about 125,000, is also the state capital and home to Lake Shawnee, arts and entertainment districts, and the Evel Knievel museum.<\/p>\n
For home buyers considering a move to Topeka, the winter season is slow, Kirk-Fink added, tracking seasonal trends.\u00a0 Even though high mortgage rates are weighing on some aspiring homeowners, Kirk-Fink said, some buyers like Ghatage aren\u2019t spooked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTopeka and the surrounding territory are still among the most affordable markets in the country at approximately half the median price,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Kirk-Fink and Ghatage viewed nearly 20 open houses, and Ghatage was able to find something he liked in the $400,000 price range. The homes below $200,000 required work, and newly built houses were too pricey and unappealing given how much smaller they were.<\/p>\n
Ghatage recently closed on his first single-family home in Topeka at $400,000, with a 30-year mortgage at a rate of 7.49%. He put 10% down.<\/p>\n
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Ghatage said moving to Kansas was a \u201cdefinitely an adjustment\u201d at first. But he\u2019s come to enjoy the city\u2019s pace of life, which feels less hectic than it did when he lived in New Jersey for three years before his stint in Vermont. <\/p>\n
\u201cLife is easy over here,\u201d Ghatage said. <\/p>\n
The lower cost of living is definitely a draw, and it leaves room for spending on other things, he said. He\u2019s hoping to fly his mom over from India to visit him and his brand-new home for Diwali, a Hindu festival celebrated in November. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven if it\u2019s expensive [to book tickets so close to the date] \u2026 I will still go ahead and bring her here, because it\u2019ll be nice for her to spend time with me and the new home,\u201d Ghatage said.<\/p>\n
His only regret? Not buying back at the start of the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep on regretting not buying in 2020 because this home that I bought was $80,000 cheaper,\u201d Ghatage said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s when rates were so low. If I could do it again, it would\u2019ve been an awesome financial decision.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Realtor.com is operated by News Corp subsidiary Move Inc., and MarketWatch is a unit of Dow Jones, which is also a subsidiary of News Corp.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n