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BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

Where We’d Invest in Real Estate in 2026 (If We Could Buy Anywhere)

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Business, Education, Investing

4.816.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If we could invest in real estate anywhere in the country, where would we put our money? It’s a new year, and markets have already shifted, changing where the best buying opportunities are. So today, Ashley Kehr (from the Real Estate Rookie podcast), Henry, and Dave are back to share their updated 2026 best places to buy rental property list!  These markets span multiple states, but many have affordable home prices (some even below $200K!). But of these top markets, which one would we make the biggest bet on? These markets fly under the radar—we’re not talking about big cities like Miami, Austin, Chicago, or Denver. Many of these may be real estate markets you’ve only heard of once or twice, but once you hear the numbers, you might take a deeper look. If you want cash-flowing cities with landlord-friendly laws, we have them. If you want appreciation potential in affordable pockets of the country, we’ve got that, too. And, if you want to buy a rental in the birthplace of Mountain Dew, you’re in luck. Each of these cities is broken down into metrics that matter most to investors: average home price, rent price, rent-to-price ratio, population growth, job growth, and more. These aren’t just “cheap” markets with low home prices, but “sleeper” cities that only the savviest investors know about. In This Episode We Cover A cash-flowing college town with home prices that are below $200K The hurricane-safe southern city that is growing at lightning speed  An affordable “sleeper” market between two very unaffordable cities Small multifamilies and Mountain Dew: this market has plenty of both  You can buy a home for around $160,000 in this Midwest market with a (surprisingly) large population  And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1227 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

These are the best markets to buy rental properties right now in early 2026. If your local market

0:06.3

is too expensive or you're hunting for a new city with serious profit potential, deciding where

0:12.2

to invest is arguably the single biggest choice to make as an investor. So today, we're breaking

0:17.8

down exactly where smart real estate investors should be looking

0:21.7

for new properties right now.

0:23.5

We've crunched the numbers, and in this episode, we're going to unveil nine prime

0:27.8

spots across the country where you should consider buying property today.

0:36.7

What's going on, everyone? I'm Dave Meyer, head of real estate investing at Bigger Pockets.

0:41.5

On today's episode, we're giving you our list of best investing markets right now.

0:46.7

And this is always one of our most popular episodes of the year.

0:49.9

So we're back in January of 2026 with an updated edition.

0:54.4

The timing right now really couldn't be better for refreshing our market recommendations

0:58.8

because the real estate landscape shifting pretty fast right now and investing conditions are

1:04.9

really diverging.

1:06.4

They're wildly different in different regions of the country.

1:09.6

So figuring out the right place to invest

1:12.0

is more important than ever. So in today's show, I'm going to highlight several markets that

1:17.4

have caught my attention personally. But on the show, we also have host of the real estate

1:22.6

rookie show, Ashley Care, joining us. And of course, we also have Henry here as well to share his picks. Ashley, Henry, good to see you both. Thank you so much for having me. Hey, glad to be here. Thank you. All right. Well, let's just get straight into it. We're each going to cover three different markets. I don't know why. This is just the format that we made up last year and it's been very successful. So three is the magic number. And Henry, I'm going to pick on you. You got to go first. So name your first market.

1:50.0

Which one caught your eye? I choose my markets based on that they have cash flow potential

1:56.3

where you could potentially get a deal on the market. So I'm looking for a solid rent to price ratio.

2:03.2

And I'm looking for the median housing price to be in an air quotes affordable range.

...

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