Which market to invest in, if you could choose from entire country?

[Mohit Madaan]

As the title and category of the forum suggests, i am foreigner investor who is going to invest living in another country and while this may sounds challenging to some, i personally feel i am more than ready. I am 28 years old, have experience investing in real estate in my country (India) and have some finance to give myself a head start. Now, here is the real question:

I have a partner from another business who lives in Stockton, CA area. He is been my partner for last 9 years and we have enjoyed working with each other very much, and there is nothing we can complaint about in our business relation. The ideal situation for me is to start in his market because that's an area i visit anyway few times a year and starting with a multi family apartment complex there won't be that bad. He is also interested in real estate investing and knows most of the local big players. So the benefits of starting out in the area are obvious. The biggest one for me is "foot on the ground". But, as alot of people would agree, stockton isn't the best market for real estate investing. The city itself was bankrupt couple of years ago, it was the hardest hit market by the crash in 2008, not enough jobs, etc etc.

On the flip side, if i want to go out of Stockton, San francisco & Chicago are pretty much same to me, well they are both about 24 hours plane ride away. The partner friend of mine wont' really like to drive by my property even if its 2 hours away, so i am pretty much own my own if its not in Stockton, Tracy, Lodi, manteca, Sacramento area.

Please comment and advice on what do you think about the situation and how would you approach it?