California immigration - Northern California continues to get lots of Russians and Ukrainians, usually educated, often with some money. My guess is that many are the relatives of various major and minor oligarchs, "businessmen" or whatever, who want a safer place where kidnapping doesn't occur, there is no Chechen threat, and the climate is better.
There are indications (I'm not as sure about this) that Korean money and some Koreans are moving into the Los Angeles area.
There is still a flow from India of the bright and the occasionally well off.
The housing buying from HK, Taiwan and other places that peaked in the early 1980s and then before the 1997 handover has pretty much gone away.
While there is still some immigration from other areas, most immigration is now low to moderate skill people from Mexico and Central America.
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What could put housing prices into Earth orbit would be another dot-com / telecom / computer boom. We are getting a smaller boom now, almost all in the dot-com (now called Web 2.0) sector.
Rupert Murdoch's purchase of Myspace for 568 million last year now looks brilliant, as valuations are now about 3x as high.
The YouTube price - 1.6 Billion for a company with 60 employees that is under 18 months old - has many people waking in the middle of the night, salivating and breathing hard. Just like GOLD FEVER.
Net Net, I expect most of the California housing market to hold up well, and values may fluctuate up or down 1-2% for about 2 years, then the desirable areas (near the coast) will start slowly climbing again. The less desireable areas (inland) may still sink slowly. The "Inland Empire" Riverside area is most likely to be decline.
Silicon Valley, San Franciso, and the West Side of Los Angeles (Santa Moninca, Bel Aire, Beverly Hills) are most likely to appreciate.
Maybe Ramsey and Elroy can give their views... |
