In June, Reuters reported Asia-Pacific sovereign wealth funds, including CIC and Singapore's Temasek, which have been rocked by soured bets on western financial companies, are diversifying into the riskier arena of distressed asset investments.

So it has tried to become a service-oriented city-state similar to Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.

Or you can fly by a Western airline and then fly by Singapore airlines and see the difference!

Out of curiosity are you looking closer to home, such as maybe Australia or Singapore?

I would say that both Singapore and New Zealand are viable alternatives to the U.S.

I grew up in Houston but have been living in Austin the past 5 years (minus a 2 year expat assignment in Singapore).

California, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, London capital appreciation isn't that hard to spot or compute if you know the market.Personally, I don't see capital appreciation to be more or less complicated to compute than rent appreciation.

Yes it does need work but one thing I noticed traveling China, Hong Kong, Singapore is they all have a huge infrastructure to support moving people around and that is key for growth!

Second, they are no longer allowing Singapore Air Force personnel to occupy houses on base, pushing them back to off base rentals. 

I am from Singapore who is interested in real estate.