Is Victorville, CA Worth Investing In? New Investor Needs Help!

[Matthew Vandegrift]

Hi everyone, I'm an aspiring real estate investor finishing up my bachelor's degree in Phoenix, AZ. My wife and I plan to move to California in about 10 months when I finish. We want to settle somewhere in Orange County, probably Newport Beach, but can't afford it right now. I was listening to on of the Webinars and Brandon mentioned that within two hours of anywhere there is something that is affordable. So, I opened up my spectrum and found Victorville. The prices seem to be some of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, in Southern California, but I found that over the past 10 years the housing prices have depreciated. My question is, is Victorville a good place to start investing in Southern California? We are looking to househack a duplex to start and our goal is to stay below $135,000 housing price with around $12,500 initial investment. I ran the numbers through the rental calculator and found a couple of deals that look good on paper, but I'm worried that the prices will continue to fall. There is also a large number of vacant homes in Victorville (10%). We are looking to buy and hold rental properties, with duplexes or other small multifamily homes being our main focus. Are there other places in Southern California that are good for investors with our investing criteria? Thank you for your feedback!

[Ali Boone]

Unfortunately there really aren't. A lot of CA folks buy out-of-state because of it (I do too), but more importantly--I really don't encourage you to move somewhere (like Victorville especially) just for the sake of house-hacking. You will still lose money and then you'll be living in a miserable place (unless you are fine in the piping hot desert with no one to hang out with). If you were profiting big by doing so, maybe, but unlike a lot of SoCal and as you mention with the depreciation of Victorville--the desert cities are the biggest crashers in a downed economy and the last to appreciate. Anywhere else in SoCal, maybe you could at least hit some appreciation profit, but Victorville is really a loss in all directions (especially sanity, which isn't worth any investment).