I’ve been doing a lot of writing about real estate for my main job recently, which made me curious as to which locations are currently seen as the best places in the U.S. for property investment.

I found a bunch of different lists online, and these were some of the locations that were mentioned most often. Some were rather surprising:

Orlando, Fla. – Apparently, rents in Orlando only rose 0.2% in the past year, which makes it an attractive location for renters.

Memphis, Tenn. – I’ve never exactly thought of Memphis as a place where I’d want to buy property, but numerous sites had this city on their lists. With high vacancy percentages and low monthly rents, Memphis is currently a city that treats its renters well.

Houston – Houston is constantly expanding, and has plenty of room to keep doing so. It also has a thriving economy right now, so not only are people consistently moving there, but they’re also spending money. This is good news for owners of rental properties.

Atlanta – Atlanta is another city with high vacancy rates and rental rates that do not grow quickly. With higher unemployment rates, people cannot afford houses, which means that rental property owners can do a lot of good business while still charging low, affordable rental rates.

Columbus, Ohio - Columbus is a college and government-job town, which means it has a pretty large base of potential renters to work with.

Phoenix - Much like Houston, this is a growing city with plenty of room to expand. There are many people in the area looking to rent homes.

A lot of times when I think about great places to own rental properties, I’d think of places like New York or Los Angeles. However, the common thread in the cities listed seems to be cities that are either growing or where the population of the city has to turn to rental properties as they cannot afford to purchase a home.  Did any of these cities surprise you?