All Forum Posts by: Manch Hon

There is zero reason for CA investors to go out of state. I admit I have been tempted. For Bay Area folks that's what Central Valley is for. Anytime you feel the urge to buy cheap houses for say 100K a piece take a look at towns up and down along Hwy 99. Stockton, Fresno, Bakersfield etc. We are building High Speed Rail there, investing 70B worth of infrastructure to connect Central Valley to the coast. Pretty huge upside if you asked me. :)

I can say what I'd do with 300K cash to invest.

Chop it up 3 ways, 100K a piece, and use it as down payment to buy 3 properties each worth 500K. At that price range we are talking about condos in less pricey bits of Bay Area (no Palo Alto) or small houses in "up and coming areas" like east San Jose. You will be cash-flow neutral or even slightly positive, but appreciation will make you a millionaire in a hurry.

Candlestick fits into my East-of-101 master plan. :) My then girlfriend now wife brought up buying a condo there circa 2006/7 but I said a bubble was brewing. Dodged a bullet... Anyway property value is still below peak there. Good buy.

 I shall name my town "Dragon". And I shall have all the Chinese gold. :)

@James Park You have some code to retrieve the historical asian pop data? I just wonder which zip in California has increasing asian population that's poised to break thru 30%. 

@James Park  Irvine is hot. I guess you could have worked it out looking at Asian migration pattern. Very popular among Chinese.

@Amit M. I don't quite understand the premium the extreme south of SF is fetching compared to Daly City. Is it stigma? Cool factor? What is it? 

Newer condos like these are exempt from rent control, is that right? The thing that scares me the most... :)

2 BR 2 BA condos with ocean view near the Candlestick ballpark is selling for around 500K. Granted there is not much bar scene going on around that corner of SF I like that area. Maybe I should buy one for myself. :)

Interesting you brought up restaurants. We just had El Polo Loco went public couple weeks back. It started out in LA, with a market cap of $1B now. The most famous restaurants ever came out of California is of course McDonald's, also from SoCal. 

Not to mention Panda Express, In n Out, etc. Yes, doing business in California has its challenges. But you need to look at things in balance. Things come in packages. 

@Matt Mason Personally I think the California business burden is overblown. True, we have high taxes and higher housing costs. They are on the negative column. OK, make it super negative. But on the plus side we have world class talents, many of the world's top universities, great weather, on and on. 

Now that we are talking about ecosystems Hollywood is another great example. It is exactly the same as Silicon Valley. The money is there, the studios are there, and aspiring actors and directors and script writers the world over flock to Hollywood. Now many towns and countries try to steal that away from California, lower taxes, subsidy, free land etc etc, but still no place comes even close. 

The point I want to make is that network effect is a b*tch. When the virtuous cycle got going it is super, super hard to break. Many people make the mistake of assuming another state's (usually Texas or Florida) lower taxes will destroy Silicon Valley or Hollywood. It's not that easy, or it would have happened by now. Never say never, sure. But I like my odds.