There are some places where one never should buy property because of security issues. While you might get the property relatively cheap, the odds of making any money from it or even finding a buyer should you decide to sell it are very low. But some investors take risks and buy such property anyway believing that crime rates would drop, etc, etc and they'd make some huge profits from the property when that time rolls by? Would you take such risks hoping that you'll make huge profits at some indefinite time in future?
I totally agree with that Rainman. Just recently I saw an amazing place, but I really disliked the location and no way I would buy there because I would not feel safe living or renting.
I agree that that is not an ideal way to invest, you would just be hoping for the crime rate o go down, which it might never. It would be a good time to buy if you saw they were building a new police station right around the block for example.... then you would know the value of the area would go up.
There are some places that are plagued by crime and other urban decay that will not change much despite the efforts citizens put toward cleaning up the areas. I would never purchase a house for myself, or as an investment, near a major city like Seattle. The city is beautiful and there are nice neighborhoods there, but the risk of crime drifting in from the bad parts of the community is too much risk for me. My fiance and I always investigate the areas in which we consider moving to, and it helps that we have lived around here our entire lives, so we know about past crime trends and what the future could look like. I have learned that a lot of people who are new to the area also do their research well before chosing where to live. In the technology age, it is easy to look up crime trends for any neighborhood, so I would not want to risk getting a property that I would not be able to do anything with later.
That would depend on whether I was buying for myself or buying to let. I think there is an advantage to buying to let in the less salubrious areas of town. In my country, government rent assistance is paid directly to the landlord so these properties can be a nice little earner, with no worries about not getting paid. You can also get away with providing a basic standard of decoration (white walls, multi-purpose carpet etc) as rental properties in these areas are not really expected to be of a first class finish. Just make it clean, tidy and functional and you're good to go.
