The Coastal Consideration

Southern California was one of my top options for where I would buy my first rental primarily because I live here.  Regardless of that bonus, I still need to do research on the market.  To begin, I really enjoyed reading the book “The ABC’s of Real Estate Investing” by Ken McElroy.  It is part of the Rich Dad Poor Dad series but it gives good insight into how to research a market.  I like to begin by reading recent articles.

New York Times had an article out this past week about real estate companies and where they are focusing their purchases, specifically California, Florida and Arizona where the market hit the hardest.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/business/financiers-bet-on-rental-housing.html?pagewanted=all  This article tells me that there are some big buyers looking at California, while the following article shows a little more local insight. http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/dec/05/san-diego-rents-show-no-hint-falling/   and another http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/dec/04/rents-are-down-san-diego/  shows me how smaller buyers like myself are faring.  I find that the local articles are the best and pertain to me more than major news outlets.

Regardless, I take articles with a grain of salt because journalism is always skewed but the information is still helpful.  The best thing to do is to talk to local property management firms, owners and renters.  After doing so I found that the articles were correct, this is a great market if you have the capital.  Southern California’s market did drop but the coastal homes didn't drop as low in price because no matter what happens people want to live on the coast.  The rents are staying stable because of the higher number of military bases, multiple colleges and thriving businesses.  Overall, I feel confident in an investment here because the economy does not rely on a single business/entity for its strong economy.