Image by Adam Derewecki from Pixabay
Let ’ s put this 8,424 square miles of buildable land in the Golden State into better perspective by comparing it to other US regions :
Another historic quote by Harold Samuel , the founder of Land Securities which was one of the United Kingdom ’ s most successful property companies , about the key to success in regard to how to make money in real estate is as follows : “ Location , location , location .”
California is filled with an abundant supply of land that is adjacent to the majestic Pacific Ocean and includes scenic rivers , mountain ranges , and forests up and down the state which borders Mexico , Nevada , Arizona , and Oregon . Our state is 1,040 miles in length and 560 miles in width . There are an estimated 156,000 square miles of land and an additional 7,734 square miles that are covered by water for a grand total size of 164,000 square miles .
If you flew on an airplane between two airports in the state that didn ’ t fly over the Pacific Ocean , you ’ d probably see primarily empty land regions . Did you know that our 40 million residents live on approximately just 5.4 % of the state ’ s entire available land supply ? Almost 95 % of California has no people living on it due to very strict zoning and usage laws and incredibly high building costs like
environmentalimpact study and “ sustainable living ” or green home building fees . Lumber prices have reached alltime record highs in early 2021 after topping $ 1,000 per 1,000 board feet for the first time ever . The combination of costly environmentalimpact fees and rising lumber supply costs are two of the main reasons why there haven ’ t been many affordable homes or apartments developed in the state .
If we divide 156,000 square miles of available California land supply by the estimated 5.4 % of land that ’ s allowed to have residents living there , this means that only 8,424 square miles of California has residential or commercial real estate and residents on it . If so , this is equal to 4,748 California residents per square mile of the buildable land supply .
Image by Ralph Nas from Pixabay
● All of the Hawaiian Islands combined : 6,422 square miles
● The Big Island of Hawaii by itself : 4,028 square miles
● The state of Connecticut : 5,543 square miles
● Puerto Rico : 3,515 square miles
Money Supply + Land = Golden Returns
Most California residents created the bulk of their family ’ s overall net worth from the acquisition of residential property , both owneroccupied and investment . Few places in world history have experienced real estate booms like California as seen in recent years especially .
Most California homebuyers or investors need thirdparty money sources to get into and out of a property . This is because generally there are more buyers who need mortgages to purchase a property than there are allcash buyers . Conversely , the same homebuyer is likely to later become a home seller who needs a qualified new homebuyer who has access to his or her money sources to close the sales transaction .
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