By most accounts, California’s real estate market is in shambles. But real estate investors seem to see an entirely different picture. In fact, residential real estate investment activity in the state has grown more than 65 percent in the past year alone, according to a report by RightNow Consulting.

“We wondered whether investment activity might have increased in California given current market dynamics but were truly surprised by these results,” said Dan Miller, CEO of RightNow.

According to the company’s analysis, residential real estate investors are the most rapidly growing population of buyers in California. Preliminary July 2008 residential property data reveals that the percentage of residential purchases by investors has increased to 11.41 percent from 6.74 percent since July 2007.

Not only did the percentage of residential investment purchases increase, but Miller said the number of investor transactions grew by 16 percent from July 2007.

By any measure, the increases are an encouraging nod to the perceived long-term value of California real estate. RightNow claims that favorable interest rates and continued price declines might push the state’s real estate market toward recovery a bit sooner than expected.

Find out more about California’s local real estate markets.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 9:57 am and is filed under Home Buying, Real Estate Market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.