I found Costar starting to get lazy when they used to have actual rent rates but now giving ranges which is useless.We encounter alot of data while doing searches for our clients so save the historical info to spot market trends. 

Real Estate is historically stable or at least generally takes longer to see the effects of market conditions than other asset classes such as: stocks. 

The one thing about California is historically it's appreciated a lot over the years so there are some investors still buying here.

If you need to evict, it is somewhat easier if you at least know who you are evicting and have some historical references and family info to provide attorney and/or collection agency.

Some want to be in the hot markets, but you need to know those markets historically tend to be more up and down with valuations.

This is because there is anticipated growth and strong historical growth in these areas.Both of these properties have terrible cash-on-cash returns, probably because you're putting down 35%.

Although I haven't experienced a recession during ownership of those properties, historically occupancy is relatively stable (89.5% average during recession).

He was part of British parliament during the US fight for independence.The above quote actually makes me "comfortable". 

What are thoughts about how much we can draw from historical charts comparing rental price trends with home price trends?

The rent to purchase ratio is a little better than San Diego/OC but it’s appreciation has historically been a little worse.