Bakersfield, it's California's ninth largest city, with a hometown feel. It's not just people moving out of big, more expensive coastal cities buying into that lifestyle:
It's also attracting investors.
"It's the most affordable place in California. there's so much demand, that there's a frenzy, almost, to get supply in her, more developments, buyer specialist of Jordan Apartment Guys, Caleb Fisk. “So, investors are just eating it up like crazy."
Investing in properties in Bakersfield does come at a cheaper price. You can pay 5x or more what you would pay per unit in Santa Barbara than in Bakersfield, according to Fisk.
“And he saw the opportunity—he basically liked the relative affordability and the value in cities like Bakersfield,” Otto Ozen, Executive Vice President of Brokerage Firm the Mogharebi Group said.
Their brokerage arranged the sale of a multi-family, market rate property of 168- units: Tyner Ranch Apartments. They sold it for $31 million dollars to a private investment group. We’re seeing hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of units coming in just on the northeast and southeast side of Bakersfield, according to Fisk.
“Our biggest investors, like the guys that own hundreds of units, and thousands of units, and some over a couple billion dollars of real estate,” Fisk said. “They're doubling down right now, trying to buy here, because they see what’s going to happen in Bakersfield, the next five ten-twenty years. We see people like Amazon coming in and a lot of big key players coming in.”
Amazon is just one example. The Mogharebi Group pointing to this
State of California Employment Development Department projection: Employment in Kern county to increase by 16.1 percent by 2024. And more than 41,000 new jobs–will be outside the farming industry. And, they're going to need somewhere to live.
“Our market share in the Central Valley of larger complexes is better than 50 percent, in some instances, better than 75 percent, so we’re very active,” Ozen said.
