Which SF Bay Area city has the best purchase price to rent ratio?

[James Khail]

I live in the SF Bay Area and have decided to buy my first single-family home.

I fully acknowledge and recognize that the SF Bay Area and California (in general) may have some of the worst cash flow numbers in the entire country.

I've already traveled to cheaper Midwestern states to look at real estate opportunities, but have decided to invest here in the SF Bay Area as I'm purchasing with the intention of living in it first and foremost, and then renting it out sometime in the near future when I move overseas.

I'm looking for anywhere in the Greater Bay Area/Northern California region (even Sacramento & Central Valley is okay) with better than average purchase price to rent ratio, and some appreciation (if possible). 

My budget is 850k and I'm focusing on the below priorities:

1. Low vacancy rate

2. Decent tenant pool

3. At least some equity/appreciation

4. Decent purchase price to rent ratio

Some of the areas I'm looking into are:

Hayward

San Leandro

Oakley

Concord

Pleasant Hill

Brentwood

Tracy

Manteca

Turlock

Modesto

Sacramento

My concern about some of the areas specifically in the Central Valley (often recommended here on BP) like Fresno, Turlock, etc, is that looking at numbers the appreciation doesn't seem to meet the mark for me (purchase price to rent ratio is decent, but equity isn't very good), so I'm generally focused more on the SF Bay Area.

Any recommendations on cities or areas would be extremely helpful. 

[Raju Balakrishnan]

Overall good list. In a high level, the appreciation is inversely proportional to price to rent ratios. So you would have to compromise on one for other. Overall CA cities have higher appreciation than national averages. Lower priced markets in central valley have better rent/price but lower appreciation compared to bay area.