This is a pretty awesome win for everyone up here, especially for investors - Vacasa is a data-driven biz for sure and highly investor friendly.

Many of these areas are very school driven too, so people want to move based on school year. 

I know people do it, because I’ve driven it and seen them.

130+k profit of a 400k purchase is a home run, but it could have been nearly 200k profit if we hadn’t driven the price up on each other.

Going to head back this weekend at 8-9pm to see if 10:30 was too late to see the true character of the area 

Are they coming with small groups/families, is it vacation driven, adventure, scenic, weather, mountains, skiing etc. 

“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.”

You are correct, Merced has some attractive long-term trends working in its favor, mainly driven by the significant investment coming in over the next 10-15 years by the UC. 

Inflation ticks up slowly % rates waffle so that the impression is managed (poliics) small business closures (compression)  I think theres a whole generation that's gonna learn about economics (the hard way)FWIW I question how much interest rates are actually going to be driven by the bond market & stock market.

@Christian Hutchinson, I totally see that, I will tell you that could happen in Royal Oak as well (but I'm sure not the same frequency), I've been thru what you're describing as well, the good news is that the landlord is in total control, 2 key things: strict rules and make your house very nice, so you won't have cheap pricing, all the shady characters that used to inquiry about my house don't even bother anymore, they get scared by my strict rules, they're looking for the newbie host that has no rules.