Hello, I have lived in several different regions and the reality is California is different. There are several reasons for this. First, low property taxes make owning real estate to use as a rental property very attractive. The high real estate taxes in many other areas of the country discourage investors. I know there will be some disagreement on this point but it is a reality. The behavior of both investors and home owners here is in my opinion far from the norm in other areas. I have lived in the midwest and on the east coast. In those areas of the country people are more likely to not leverage property like the homeowners in California. The mortgage industry is less likely to be involved in making loans that people cannot afford and homeowners are more likely to be conservative in taking on debt. I will happily admit these are just some observations and no random sampling was done to produce this information.
I currently live in a neighborhood where a realtor bought a home, took out all the equity, moved out when the house was sent notice of default and is now renting the home to far more people than the house can accomodate to squeeze more money from the house while the bank tries to finish the foreclosure process. In another community this would be remembered and this realtor would not be able to find clients ever. In California this realtor will move and start over somewhere else with a some poor lenders money in her pocket and taxpayers footing the bill. While this could happen anywhere, in California we are no longer surprised. In many parts of the country this would be considered outrageous. We need to start considering that too much unethical behavior is overlooked here.
