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New York City is not such a great place to flip a house, according to a new study

By Donna M. Airoldi  | July 31, 2018 - 3:00PM
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The city has some of the highest remodeling costs in the country.

Planetgordon.com/Flickr

If you’ve ever watched a house-flipping show, you’ve probably thought at some point, “I could do that!” But turning a fixer-upper into a money maker isn’t as easy as it looks on TV, especially in New York City.

Despite being one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country, the city comes in just 33rd for average gross return on investment and is a lowly 163rd for overall best place to flip a house, according to WalletHub’s new report 2018’s Best Places to Flip Houses, which compared 172 U.S. cities across 27 key indicators of market potential, cost, and quality of life.

Overall, house flippers earned an average gross profit of $68,143 in 2017.

The high cost of renovation is what tanks New York City’s overall score. The city is the second worst for house flipping based on renovation and remodeling costs, ahead of only San Francisco. Not surprisingly, it ranks low for average kitchen remodeling costs (159th) and average bathroom remodeling costs (167th), meaning it’s more expensive here than only a handful of other cities to upgrade those two key rooms.

Where New York scored well is in the housing-market health index, coming in a respectable 17th. It was in the middle of the pack for market potential (85th), and in the top half for quality of life (64th).

Sioux Falls, South Dakota, came in on top as the best place for house flipping, followed by two cities in Idaho: Nampa and Boise.

 

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