If you could move anywhere in the U.S. to begin RE investing right now, where would you go?

[Brigg Sabol]

I've been living in Japan for the past 10 years and I'm moving back to Southern California on May 30th.  My wife is Japanese and through my research we have found that Torrance California has very strong Japanese community.  Our plan is to move to Torrance Ca.

As I've been looking for properties on Realtor.com and reading various articles about the ridiculous housing market situation in the L.A. area, I'm starting to come to the conclusion that this might not be such a great landing spot to begin my real estate investing journey. 

My Goal: I have about 12,000$ and once I land a job (or 2) I plan to aggressively save whatever money I can. I like Josh & Branden's "house hacking" idea, where I would buy a 4-plex with a FHA 3.5% down payment loan and live in one unit while renting out the other 3. After enough time I would try and take out an equity loan on the property plus use the money saved by not having to pay rent to invest in my next property. (12,000$/3.5% comes to about a 340,000$ mortgage)

Bigger Pockets Community, I call out to you!

• Is the L.A. real estate investing market as bad as they say?  Torrance, Ca?
• If you could move anywhere in the U.S. to start your real estate journey (keeping the above "My Goal" in mind as the starting point) where would you go?
• Is the above "My Goal" realistic?  How would you change it?

I look forward to hearing everyone's advice and recommendations!  Thanks in advance for your help!

[Account Closed]

konichiwa, BS!

i was just in torrance earlier today. i find it too 'industrial' like gardena, for residential living although for commercial or industrial operations, its awesome! 

i moved to los angeles county fairly recently from nyc however my heart is forever in asia, my mom's ancestors' homeland. 

well my dad's a caribbean islander of mostly native amerindian descent but i find the caribbean is heavily europeanized, even with the afro & latino majorities. so, i tend to vacay and expend humanitarian efforts moreso in asia than here in the 'new world'.

so if i could move anywhere within USA it would have to be even more 'West'ward til proximal to the Far East - HAWAII, GUAM AND OR MICRONESIA(!) would do - to feel most comfy.  i'm a 'tropical islander' at heart and apparently it shows thru and thru cuz the local latinos tend to often tell me i must be from somewhere 'tropical' and at the same time i often getting asked if i'm japanese or part japanese. 

but for now i'm luvin socal, and i wouldnt say the LAC market is bad, just its soo comparatively premium priced across the board, even entry level bargains (i posted a thread on BP encompassing yesterday somewhere encompassing LA market) and the inventory is piling up due to sellers affected by the hyperinflation of the US dollar against imported Chinese Japanese and Korean funds galore! and just that OC may be better/more practical for actually finding some deals to INVEST in more affordably rather than splurge in.