Are you a first-time home buyer? A real estate investor? Or maybe both?

There is always a silver lining around every cloud, and in the nebulous of the slow-moving real estate market,  one area remained positive—rental properties. Demand for rental properties has been rising, accompanied by rising rents and declining vacancies.

So who’s taking advantage of the bargain prices? A survey just released by Move, Inc., suggests that substantial numbers of first-time purchasers plan to eventually turn their homes into investment properties, and that many self-described real estate investors are actually buying their first homes.

Nearly 60 percent of respondents in the survey, conducted among a 1,000-plus sample of U.S. adults last month, said they are new to real estate investing. Nearly a third of self-described investors in the survey said they expect to buy a primary residence as their first real estate investment. Almost half of them said they plan to live in the house until it’s sold or turned into a rental investment.

With apartment rents expected to rise 2.5 percent in 2011 and 3.2 percent in 2012, homes purchased for investment reasons will likely continue to attract first-time buyers.

“The survey suggests some first-time buyers may be looking at investment as a strategy to become homeowners,” said Move Inc. CEO Steve Berkowitz. “While today’s market may be tough for some, it’s also motivating millions to take an unconventional approach and creatively search for new ways of entering the housing market.”

Article Credit : Steve Rodgers of Real Living Lifestyles

Read the rest of the article at Real Living Lifestyles Blog

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