California Commercial Real Estate Market Trends Analysis

Overview

California Commercial Real Estate Investing Market Overview

The average gross median rent for housing in California for the past decade is . Nationwide, the gross median rent averaged .

The populace in California in the recent decade has witnessed a growth rate of . Compare that with the nation’s rate of .

Analyzing the data for annual growth rates, we find that the average annual population growth rate for California was . You can employ the nation’s average of to calculate how California is ranked nationwide.

The average growth rate of residential property values in California each year is . The US annual average is .

Residential property values in California show a median value of . The median home value at the nationwide level is .

California Commercial Real Estate Investing Highlights

California Top Highlights

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Based on latest data from the US Census Bureau
Based on latest data from the US Census Bureau

Strategies

Strategy Selection

When seeking a commercial property investment location, you need to know the investing method you prefer to employ. The investment business model will guide the investor to the most relevant data for a useful market analysis.

Follow along as we examine several investment ways for commercial real estate to discover which market research statistics data you’ll need for correct market research. Comprehending the most important data for every method is going to make you more effective in using this guide to analyze potential investment areas for your project.

Active Real Estate Investing Strategies

Multifamily Investing

Multifamily homes might be anything from a duplex to a large property with major amenities. Investors in this sort of real estate asset are keeping the investment for a long time.

If the quantity of tenants is too large for a landlord to take care of, the best commercial property management companies in California will be able to assist them.

Long-term investor-landlords are looking for multiple economic income from this sort of investment: rental income and property appreciation. The profitability of the investment is coupled with a continuously strong occupancy rate.

An elaborated project that takes into account local vacancy figures is required when you request a loan — to convince the institution to approve your application. Go over our resources about what kind of loan you can get for an apartment building as well as how to evaluate a commercial property.

PropertyCashin also combined the commercial real estate loan brokers and lenders in California in a list to allow you to find the best loan.

Median Gross Rents

Investors in multifamily housing need to know the amount they can charge in rent before choosing a place to invest. If an investor cannot set sufficient rent to make profitability, they won’t choose that market.

Investors utilize median rents rather than average rents. Average rent can be misleading. Several assets charging much higher rent might generate a larger average in a community that has and demands increased lower rent apartments. Median rent is the middle rent in the area with an equal quantity of properties charging more and less than the median.

Annual Average Population Growth

Real estate investors will avoid a declining market. With fewer tenants, there will be a decreased need for housing.

An unchanging market might show an imminent out-migration by its citizens. Market reports that demonstrate an expanding population are needed for lucrative investments.

10 Year Population Growth

Demographic data that indicates the direction of the community’s population growth is important to making a reasonable investment choice. When a region reveals positive expansion that is less than earlier years’ improvement, that might be a concern.

On the other hand, last year’s slight decline, while the population has gotten better steadily over recent years, might indicate a chance to buy property at a discount and see it improving in the years to come.

Property Tax Rates

An area with regular tax increases could be a poorly governed municipality. If schools and other municipal services decrease, residents move out which means lower tax receipts and low property values.

Also, if a city persists in hiking property taxes, the rents will have to increase which could worsen your vacancy rate. Researching the historical data on the market’s property tax rates could keep you from making a bad investment plan.

Income Levels

To accurately supply the class of housing that is wanted by tenants, you have to know the amount of income they receive. This will affect their investment plan.

Quality of Schools

A lot of apartments are lived in by families and not just individuals. The parents you are marketing your property to are going to be looking at the strength of the area’s schools.

Industrial Property Investing

Industrial properties are commercial properties that are typically occupied by Business to Business (B2B) companies. These companies may genuinely make the goods, or they might be middlemen that deliver a producer’s goods to other businesses.

However, currently, there is an increasing group of industrial properties whose tenants are internet purchase fulfillment centers that disburse goods directly to the customer.

Industrial property investors will hang onto the property long-term and function as the landlord. Their investment predictions count on income from both rent and the eventual sale of the property. Industrial leases can be structured on either gross or net rent terms.

Annual and 10 Year Population Growth

Population statistics are significant for industrial investment strategies for reasons that are different from residential investments. A decreasing population has a more indirect impact on industrial properties by way of a decreasing tax base. Sufficient tax revenues are required to maintain highways and infrastructure that industrial properties need.

A decreasing population is an accurate signal that business property values are presumably to decrease as well. Industrial renters are ongoing companies that have to have workers. These renters won’t be comfortable gambling on an area that does not have a growing number of possible workers.

Property Tax Rates

Industrial investors use property tax trends as an indicator of the stability of a community, akin to apartment complex investors. Uncertain tax rates indicate a market that most likely isn’t beneficial for your investment’s profitability.

Investors may want to learn more on commercial and industrial real estate taxation and how to reduce commercial property tax in the U.S. from our resources.

Accessibility

Industrial real estate tenants usually haul large quantities of goods or cumbersome items. Big tractor-trailer trucks are employed to move these items. Industrial property investors search for assets that are near significant highways that large tractor-trailer trucks can get to without problems.

There are industrial businesses that use trains or airplanes to transfer their goods. Industrial properties that are located close to an interstate make this easier, which makes the property more valuable.

Utilities

Manufacturing properties frequently need high amounts of power and water. If a property does not have suitable levels of these utilities, some businesses will search somewhere else.

Retail Property Investing

Retail facilities rent space to businesses whose customers are typical people in the region. This includes single-tenant and multi-tenant buildings. Single-tenant buildings may contain a bank, a pharmacy, a restaurant, or an auto repair store.

Multi-tenant premises can be two or 3 space facilities, modest “strip” centers, significant “big box” or grocery store centers with national anchor stores. Shopping centers that include condominiums or apartments, offices, and retail shops are considered “lifestyle” centers.

Retail lease agreements are net contracts with renters being responsible for the landlord’s tax, property insurance, and maintenance of common areas as additional rent. Net leases additionally state that the renter is responsible for the upkeep of the property.

Retail tenants have particular site requirements that retail investors go by when analyzing demographic data.

Population Growth

The total data for the region being considered isn’t enough for retail investors. Their renters are looking at the particular area, or trade area encompassing the proposed location. Shoppers have to be able to locate and easily get to your retail tenants.

Population growth is relevant, but retailers have to have a minimum amount of clients now. Investors in retail assets will review all facets of population data like population size, annual and 10 year growth numbers, and how many people work in the trade area.

Median Income

The populace’s income rates are a critical part of retail location requirements. Median income data is a lead to the shoppers who can buy costly products from luxury stores or customers on a smaller budget who have to have lower prices.

Median Age

Retail real estate investors rely on age information that different investors disregard. If you need to locate and keep quality renters, you will want to choose an asset that is situated close to their required age groups.

Property Tax Rates

The prior illustration of the way property tax rate information is utilized by industrial and apartment building purchasers applies to retail investors too. Higher taxes equate to larger rents which increase vacancy rates, and places with growing tax rates often have decreasing property values.

In a city demonstrating elevated real estate tax rates, it’s even more crucial to ensure the property isn’t overassessed by the tax assessor. Protesting real estate taxes can be delegated to the best commercial real estate lawyers in California.

Office Property Investing

Office properties rent work space to businesses. Office real estate can be a single story flex space or a multiple level building. Large brands usually prefer to utilize their capital for business improvement rather than buying property.

The lease contract used for office tenants is a gross lease, occasionally referred to as a “full service” lease. These kinds of deals add the owner’s costs, such as tax and property insurance into the payment. The terms can be altered according to the tenant and landlord’s requirements.

Office space investors hold these assets for a long term which provides returns from both ongoing lease income and the growing worth of the asset.

Population

Office real estate investors need demographic data that indicates the existence of qualified workers for their favored renters. They look for the total population number, their ages, and their education. So that they can lease to dependable renters, investors ought to mirror the lessees’ specifications in their site criteria.

Property Tax Rates

A properly managed city or county that attracts potential office employees to the market won’t have excessive or consistently increasing tax rates. Strong lessees will search for that kind of environment.

Incomes/Cost of Living

Higher salaries can mean an educated populace that a lot of office renters need. It also gives them an idea of the salary standards needed to compete for the optimum employees.

Education

Education achievements are studied by office lessees and investors more than other property investors. They ought to know whether they are recruiting lessees who need higher levels of education or not.

BRRRR and Buy and Hold

Buy, rehab, rent, refinance, and repeat (BRRRR) is an investment plan that creates a collection of rental properties. These are long-term or Buy and Hold investments. The investor receives rental revenue during their ownership and a one time amount when the asset’s price increases, then they sell it.

Once the property is acquired and renovated, it is rented to a tenant. Then the property is refinanced subject to its enhanced value, and the additional value is given to the investor. The investor uses this cash to buy more property which is rehabbed, rented, refinanced, and so on.

To purchase and repair commercial real estate, investors opt for nontraditional financing. Traditional lending companies don’t approve these projects considering them too risky.

Search through our directory of commercial real estate vendors to get in touch with the top commercial rehab lending companies in California and the top California commercial private and hard money lending companies.

In this resource, you can also see the top commercial and industrial real estate brokers in California whose professional expertise will be valuable for you. Let’s look at a set of stats a broker can consult you about.

Median Gross Rents

Investors need to locate allowable existing rent levels and evidence of reasonable rent bumps. This one factor is significant when the final market decision is made.

Property Value Growth

If property values are not expanding, a buy and hold investor gives up half of the investment plan.

Population

The dynamics of the population’s increase is a critical indicator to BRRRR investors. An expanding populace means a dependable supply of tenants and is more likely to sustain increasing property values.

Income

To buy the correct investment property, investors should be aware of their target audience’s level of income. If you are satisfied investing in mid-priced real estate, you don’t need to see high wages.

Property Tax Rates

High or increasing taxes will be harmful for an investment. On the contrary, consistent property tax rates can signal an expanding market.

Be advised that counties’ appraisals of property market worth are sometimes inaccurate, which makes you pay unfair tax amounts without knowing. To execute a tax protest process, use the top commercial property tax protest companies in California and best California commercial real estate appraisers.

Development

To a real estate investor, property development refers to the development of any commercial property or an entire residential neighborhood. The developer has to find land that meets their specifications so that they can produce housing lots for sale or commercial rental properties.

An investor must be certain the land is properly zoned, hires civil engineers to plan the site work, finds architects and engineers to design building plans, and goes through the local approval procedures. When all the submissions are authorized, the site work and construction are completed and purchasers or renters are found.

Real estate ventures can take years to complete. The economic picture or area regulations can shift in a negative way before the development is finished. That is why the most financially perilous kind of property investing is development.

Development can get paused by different events causing a long delay before continuing construction work. Even when the site is protected against vandals, one can’t prevent weather disasters from damaging the unfinished property. The best commercial property insurance companies in California help local builders avoid losses caused by such events.

Insurance is a vehicle you will need to present to lenders while submitting documents for financing. You can learn about the insurance companies that are considered reliable by talking to the best commercial construction real estate lending companies in California directly.

Population

Real estate developers utilize the identical demographic data that their targeted buyers and tenants assess to find areas with acceptable levels of populace size and growth, economic strength, and educational achievement.

Income

Retail real estate developers use income levels to locate their project where it could attract the customers that their desired tenants need. High-end retailers hunt for upper income areas, but lower priced retail stores need middle class customers.

Businesses that rent office and industrial space utilize wage data as a sign of their employee expenses in that area. Developers know this, and consider wage rates to project a market’s desirability for their desired renters.

Education

Companies that rent space in industrial and office buildings have particular education statistics in mind for their sites’ residents. High end firms expect to see a majority of college degrees. Industrial workers don’t want more than high school graduates.

Age

Developers search for a median age that reflects citizens who are active employees and taxpayers. Industrial and office developers require a working age citizenry. Involved employees and their families shop at businesses and dining establishments that lease retail space.

Residential real estate developers want the identical age category because they are more likely to be moving up the social ladder, which increases residential transactions.

Mortgage Note Investing

To invest in mortgage notes, the investor pays less than the remaining balance for loans currently in effect, and takes over from the first lender. The original lender may be agreeable to selling because they want cash, or because the borrower is not current with their payments.

One promissory note investment plan is to create a new loan payment program that is more convenient for the borrower to maintain, and retain the investment in their portfolio long-term. They understand that if the borrower discontinues making payments, they can recover the collateral and unload it, which is a portion of the plan.

Population

Population size and its growth are significant to these investors for the same rationale as other investors. Investors understand right away if an area is feasible by researching population data.

Property Values

Property market worth growth rates are significant to the promissory note investment methodology. The rising value of the property eases the liability of the investment.

Property Tax Rates

In an area with increasing tax rates, the larger expense of owning a house may force borrowers into foreclosure. That’s bad for interest revenue, but is actually preferred by investors who hope to make a profit faster by foreclosing on the property.

Passive Real Estate Investing Strategies

Syndications

When an individual creates an investment venture and attracts others to provide the funds, it’s referred to as a syndication.

The syndicator/sponsor is the individual who puts the project together. Besides creating the project, they oversee the investment and the ownership endeavors.

Syndication participants other than the syndicator/sponsor are passive investors. To qualify as a passive investor, they can’t assist with the operation of the partnership investment.

Real Estate Market

Market research performed by syndication investors must copy the requirements for the category of property being bought.

To understand the data required for a particular kind of investment, review the previous descriptions of active investment types.

Syndicator/Sponsor

The sponsor may or may not invest their own cash. Their investment may be their time and work to create and manage the project. Non-cash investment is known as “sweat equity”.

You may choose to locate a syndication that obliges the sponsor to place their money into the investment.

Prior to investing, make certain that the syndicator is an experienced, trustworthy real estate expert. They must demonstrate a history of winning ventures and pleased partners.

Ownership Interest

A syndication is legally owned by its investors. The amount of ownership interest that each individual holds is based on their investment. Cash investors should be given advantageous treatment in comparison with sweat equity participants.

A preferred return is frequently used to convince investors to participate in the syndication. This return is disbursed before the remainder of any profits are paid out.

At the end, the asset could be sold, hopefully for a profit. A member’s part of liquidation profits will increase their overall gains. The distributions to the investors are calculated and are included in the partnership operating agreement.

REITs

A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is an organization that possesses and operates income producing real estate. They generate income from rent payments and build long-term property appreciation.

Being a trust, REITs have to disburse 90% of that revenue to its shareholders. Small investors appreciate REITs because they may sell their shares when they want.

Individuals who acquire REIT shares have no vote in which properties are bought or how they are handled because they are passive investors.

People who want to become passive investors consider buying REITs. They purchase REIT shares when they sell real estate.

A tax deferred exchange is meant to save money for investors who consider doing so. Our articles — Can You Do a 1031 Exchange into a REIT? and Pros and Cons of a 1031 Exchange into DST — will allow you to understand the advantages and rules of this exchange.

For such a transaction, you will have to be served by a 1031 Exchange facilitator. Find them in PropertyCashin’s list of the best 1031 exchange Qualified Intermediaries in California.

Real Estate Investment Funds

Real estate investment funds are another vehicle that collects cash to invest in real property. Funds do not own real estate — they possess interest in companies that do, for example REITs.

This investment choice doesn’t disburse dividend revenue to their investors. The investment revenue to the shareholder is the predicted appreciation in share value.

A real estate fund could be a mutual fund, a private equity fund for wealthy investors, or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Shares in real estate funds are purchased and unloaded on the public market which is helpful for newbie investors.

Investors in funds do not have anything to do with choosing assets or markets, because they are passive investors.

Housing

California Housing 2024

Investors planning on purchasing assets in California may need to see the median gross rent which is . To compare, the US median gross rent is .

Another indicator to consider is the ratio of occupied rental units in California which is currently . Across the United States, it reaches .

Home occupancy ratios in California are . The residential units that are unoccupied make up of the aggregate number of housing units.

Multifamily investors will want to contrast the portion of home ownership in the area, which is , with the national ratio of .

It is critical for housing property investment professionals to realize that the average annual rate of change in property values over the past decade is .

Nationally, over that same ten years, the yearly average has been .

The conclusion of that growth rate in California is a median home value of . Maintaining the contrasts described previously, the median value in the U.S. is .

Housing Quick Stats
Home Appreciation Rate(2010-2018)
Median Home Value
Median Gross Rent
Price To Rent Ratio
Home Ownership Rate
Tenant Occupied Rate
Average Property Tax Rate

California Home Ownership

California Rent & Ownership

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California Rent Vs Owner Occupied By Household Type

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California Occupied & Vacant Number Of Homes And Apartments

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California Household Type

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California Property Types

California Age Of Homes

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California Types Of Homes

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California Homes Size

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Marketplace

California Commercial Investment Property Marketplace

For commercial real estate investors, our Commercial Investment Property Marketplace can be an essential resource. Our nationwide platform enables you to quickly find lucrative investment opportunities matching your buying criteria.

The interface of our Marketplace is meticulously designed with commercial property investors’ needs in mind. Unlike other real estate listing websites, our Marketplace provides easily accessible and extremely detailed information about the property’s features and deal type.

Learn and analyze data such as projected repair expenses, potential rental income or resale profit before even contacting the seller. Choose from California commercial properties for sale by visiting our Marketplace

California Commercial Investment Properties for Sale

Homes For Sale

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Financing

California Commercial Real Estate Investing Financing

To simplify your search for commercial real estate financing, including rehab and construction projects, we created a tool helping you easily shop for loans with the best terms.

To get quotes from multiple lenders in for your preferred loan type, submit this quick online commercial real estate financing application form.

California Commercial Investment Property Loan Types

Check out some of the most popular real estate loans provided by top local lenders in ,
  • Rehab Loans
  • Fix and Flip Loans
  • Bridge Loans
  • Asset Based Loans
  • Cash Out/Refinance Loans
  • Transactional Funding
  • Transactional Hard Money Loans
  • Private Money Loans
  • New Construction Loans

Compare Commercial Investment Property Loan Rates in California

Receive multiple offers from best private and hard money lenders and get access to unlimited capital to fund any type of real estate investment property!
COMPARE LOAN RATES
Purchase
Rehab
Construction
Refinance
Bridge
Development

Population

California Population Over Time

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California Population By Year

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California Population By Age And Sex

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Economy

California Economy 2024

When you study the California economy, you’ll discover an unemployment rate of . Across the United States, it reaches .

The average salary in California is compared to the countrywide average of .

The per capita income in California is . In contrast, the national per-person income is .

While contrasting income status in our society, median incomes are used as a standard. California has a median income of . A comparison can be developed by employing the being the US median.

The overall poverty rate in California is . The overall poverty rate for the country is .

Economy Quick Stats
Unemployment Rate
Median Household Income
Per Capita Income
Overall Poverty Rate
Average Salary
Property Price To Income Ratio
Salary Change Rate (2010-2018)

California Residents’ Income

California Median Household Income

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California Per Capita Income

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California Income Distribution

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California Poverty Over Time

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California Property Price To Income Ratio Over Time

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California Job Market

California Employment Industries (Top 10)

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California Unemployment Rate

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California Employment Distribution By Age

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California Average Salary Over Time

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California Employment Rate Over Time

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California Employed Population Over Time

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Schools

California School Ratings

If you look at the California school system information, you will find that the percentage of students who graduated from high school is . The California school system consists of high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools.

School Quick Stats
Elementary Schools
Middle Schools
High Schools
Private Schools
High School Graduates

California School Ratings

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California Counties