It might weight one location above another if it's already on your list of possibilities for other reasons, but it wouldn't be a determining factor in any way for me.Really, you can do real estate anywhere in some shape or form, so you can move where you want and figure out how to make real estate work there, or move where you want and figure out how to make real estate work for you "long distance".  

I've read through the Assessor's website, and I see you can get a reduction on the assessment for the current year.

The actual sales price was $700k + $50k credit for price reduction because of negotiations.Thank you Susan

This is a pretty stressful time for us right now, and are curious if there is any help or loophole to this situation to take some of this weight off of our shoulders.Thank you so much for your time.

And you should consider principal reduction as part of your return.

Tax implications would be a big factor, as would the predetermined buyout(or methodology for calculating future buyout amount), but the big factor would be their desire to max out profits weighted against their desired quality of life.But those deals are almost always a result of being observant at the right place and time.

But if you don't need the money now, San Diego is probably as good a bet as any to outpace the national home price appreciation rates over the long term.The other option is to cash out and put your $500k of equity to work somewhere else, maybe in turn key properties in the Midwest where appreciation is a more modest 2% (every city is different - I used Chicago to come up with 2%), but your return is weighted more to cashflow than appreciation (less risky).

for an energy reduction...

Old buildings where landlord pays water I take 60% of expected gross income off the top in expenses.This does not include immediate deferred capex which would result in a further price reduction or credit from the seller to purchase.If property was full I would look at the loyalty factor of the tenant base.

I would tend to put heavier weight on MF rentals than a SFH lot, building a SFH is riskier than apartments mainly and it typically would increase your income.