When Does California Land Increase In Value?

What happens when you own California land and the population around it rises? It means new jobs are coming into the area. What else? Money is going into the local economy. New infrastructures are grabbing their blue suede shoes and jumping onto the real estate dance floor including business centers, manufacturing industries and energy plants. Surrounding California homes, schools, parks, hospitals, and shopping malls are blossoming! As the local economy expands recreational centers emerge such as golf courses and theatres. Artists then depict the convergence of old local customs and new city styles and guess what? You make money! Not only is being in the middle of this California land development exciting, but most importantly, you stand a good chance of making money on your land for sale in California above what you paid.






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Simple supply and demand economics shows that the opposite holds true when people begin to leave an area. For example, when the devastative Hurricane Katrina swept through New Orleans, Louisiana, it caused the real estate market there to crash because everyone had to flee.



Knowledge of population patterns is very important to buy land California and sell land California. The chart below shows how the total population of California has increased at an average rate of over 1% a year between 2001-2004.




California State Population Statistics 2001-2004:



























2001 2002 % Change 2003 % Change 2004 % Change Average Growth Rate over 3 Years
California 34532163 34988261 01.32% 35462712 01.36% 35893799 01.22% 01.30%


California's growth rate of over 1.3% shows that more people are moving into California than are leaving. As a result, the price of land continues to rise everywhere. However, even if this ceased to continue there will always be certain areas where California land will increase in value.

Looking at Land Lots for Sale California by County Population Statistics 2001-2004:



The following chart below shows the population growth patterns for land-southern-california/land-for-sale-southern-california.shtml>land lots for sale California by the 20 biggest counties in the state:




Largest 20 Counties in the state of California by Percent of Los Angeles





































































































































































































































































Top 20 County Name 2004 % size of Los Angeles County
1 Los Angeles County 9937739 100.00%
2 Orange County 2987591 30.06%
3 San Diego County 2931714 29.50%
4 San Bernardino County 1921131 19.33%
5 Riverside County 1871950 18.84%
6 Santa Clara County 1685188 16.96%
7 Alameda County 1455235 14.64%
10  8 Sacramento County 1352445 13.61%
11  9 Contra Costa County 1009144 10.15%
12  10 Fresno County 866772 08.72%
13  11 Ventura County 797699 08.03%
14  12 San Francisco County 744230 07.49%
15  13 Kern County 734846 07.39%
16  14 San Mateo County 699216 07.04%
17  15 San Joaquin County 649868 06.54%
18  16 Stanislaus County 498355 05.01%
19  17 Sonoma County 468450 04.71%
20  18 Monterey County 414629 04.17%
21  19 Solano County 412970 04.16%
22  20 Santa Barbara County 401851 04.04%


Notice how Los Angeles county real estate dwarfs the other counties by the size of its population. Orange County real estate holds the second largest population size. Southern California real estate as a whole has 6 for 6 counties on the list of most populated counties in California, however 7-10 is dominated by counties in the Northern California real estate hemisphere, so they are right there too. The weather is what continues to be the deciding factor for people moving to Southern California.



The next chart below shows the population growth trends for the state of California by the top 20 fastest growing counties:




Top 20 Fastest Growing Counties in the state of California


















































































































































































































































































53  Top 20 County Name 2001 2002 % Change 2003 % Change 2004 % Change Average Growth Rateover 3 Years
54 1 Placer County 264874 279011 05.34% 293630 05.24% 307004 04.55% 05.04%
55 2 Riverside County 1620834 1694623 04.55% 1782822 05.20% 1871950 05.00% 04.92%
56 3 Madera County 125880 128815 02.33% 133696 03.79% 138951 03.93% 03.35%
57 4 Calaveras County 41774 43143 03.28% 44727 03.67% 45939 02.71% 03.22%
58 5 San Joaquin County 593079 612564 03.29% 631876 03.15% 649868 02.85% 03.10%
59 6 San Bernardino County 1765578 1808893 02.45% 1862195 02.95% 1921131 03.16% 02.85%
60 7 Kern County 675859 693060 02.55% 713445 02.94% 734846 03.00% 02.83%
61 8 Merced County 218189 224934 03.09% 231397 02.87% 237005 02.42% 02.80%
62 9 Sutter County 80138 82247 02.63% 84670 02.95% 86760 02.47% 02.68%
63 10 Kings County 131935 134543 01.98% 138708 03.10% 142561 02.78% 02.62%
64 11 Tulare County 374023 381280 01.94% 391084 02.57% 401502 02.66% 02.39%
65 12 El Dorado County 161397 165767 02.71% 169199 02.07% 172889 02.18% 02.32%
66 13 Stanislaus County 465287 480233 03.21% 491014 02.24% 498355 01.50% 02.32%
67 14 Sacramento County 1266480 1301716 02.78% 1330730 02.23% 1352445 01.63% 02.21%
68 15 Fresno County 814688 832057 02.13% 850650 02.23% 866772 01.90% 02.09%
69 16 Lake County 60611 62274 02.74% 63397 01.80% 64446 01.65% 02.07%
70 17 Shasta County 167269 171923 02.78% 175654 02.17% 177816 01.23% 02.06%
71 18 Colusa County 19138 19370 01.21% 19755 01.99% 20339 02.96% 02.05%
72 19 Imperial County 143715 145702 01.38% 148924 02.21% 152448 02.37% 01.99%
73 20 Tehama County 56816 57652 01.47% 58892 02.15% 60075 02.01% 01.88%



The noticable trend is that the counties closest to the real estate in Los Angeles County CA and the San Francisco Bay area experienced the most growth. Placer County and Riverside County real estate are the top two areas with the fastest population increases in recent years, growing at an average pace of about 5% a year. Both are adjacent to the major metroplis centers Los Angeles and San Francisco. Placer County is adjacent to the Bay area and Sacramento County CA. Riverside land CA is a stone's throw from Los Angeles County land. The top 3-5 spots (Madera County CA, Calaveras County CA, and San Joaquin CA) are also in Northern California farther out from the expensive San Francisco area. They enjoy an average growth rate of about 3%. The 6-7 spots still around 3% growth a year (San Bernardindo County CA real estate and Kern County real estate) are attached to the real estate borders. 12 of the 13 other California counties that grew the fastest were surprisingly in Northern California all close to the Bay area. Only Imperial County real estate near San Diego real estate in Southern California came in as a big surprise at an average annual growth rate of 1.99%.



The next chart below shows the population growth patterns for the state of California by the top 20 slowest growing counties:




Top 20 Slowest Growing Counties in the state of California
















































































































































































































































































77  Bottom 20 County Name 2001 2002 % Change 2003 % Change 2004 % Change Average Growth Rateover 3 Years
78 1 San Benito County 54994 55686 01.26% 56187 00.90% 56243 00.10% 00.75%
79 2 Plumas County 20901 21012 00.53% 21198 00.89% 21359 00.76% 00.73%
80 3 Solano County 404555 409503 01.22% 411636 00.52% 412970 00.32% 00.69%
81 4 Mendocino County 86946 87599 00.75% 88476 01.00% 88551 00.08% 00.61%
82 5 Siskiyou County 44109 44231 00.28% 44630 00.90% 44891 00.58% 00.59%
83 6 Monterey County 408258 411578 00.81% 414423 00.69% 414629 00.05% 00.52%
84 7 San Luis Obispo County 250867 252055 00.47% 253072 00.40% 254566 00.59% 00.49%
85 8 Humboldt County 126695 127424 00.58% 127908 00.38% 128529 00.49% 00.48%
86 9 Inyo County 17997 18299 01.68% 18364 00.36% 18244 -00.65% 00.46%
87 10 Sonoma County 465724 465902 00.04% 467304 00.30% 468450 00.25% 00.19%
88 11 Santa Barbara County 400816 401481 00.17% 402795 00.33% 401851 -00.23% 00.09%
89 12 Santa Clara County 1690090 1674598 -00.92% 1675915 00.08% 1685188 00.55% -00.09%
90 13 Marin County 248399 247191 -00.49% 246635 -00.22% 246045 -00.24% -00.32%
91 14 Mono County 12897 12997 00.78% 12831 -01.28% 12766 -00.51% -00.34%
92 15 Alameda County 1470528 1463948 -00.45% 1458749 -00.36% 1455235 -00.24% -00.35%
93 16 Sierra County 3528 3499 -00.82% 3546 01.34% 3490 -01.58% -00.35%
94 17 Alpine County 1204 1216 01.00% 1188 -02.30% 1190 00.17% -00.38%
95 18 San Mateo County 707417 701271 -00.87% 699094 -00.31% 699216 00.02% -00.39%
96 19 Santa Cruz County 255339 253352 -00.78% 251725 -00.64% 250633 -00.43% -00.62%
97 20 San Francisco County 774479 761983 -01.61% 751908 -01.32% 744230 -01.02% -01.32%



The most noticable pattern is the exodus from San Francisco County CA real estate. "Your prices are killing me Larry!" That's because the average price of a home in San Francisco in 2006 was above $650,000. Out of all the counties in California, San Francisco had the worst population growth rate at negative 1%. Yet, I can vouch for those going to the county, because the views are spectacular in San Francisco and the people are great, they are very smart and stylishly astute. Stylishly.... hmmm Is that a word? Maybe it will be legit some day! Santa Barbara in Southern California also experienced a decrease in population size probably for the same reason as San Francisco, wow what a beautiful place Santa Barbara has become, and by the way it tops the list of the best luxury homes in California with the highest average sales price for California homes in the Southern California region at $1,190,000.

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