Fantastic real estate investment opportunities are available in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The declining U.S. housing market with the resulting foreclosures have resulted in a large inventory of bank owned properties in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. These properties represent the type of investment properties that foreign investors have been hoping for.

The U.S. real estate market is one of the most sought after investment opportunities for international buyers. Today’s bargain prices in the San Francisco Bay Area is resulting in more and more foreign investment activity in the Bay Area housing market.

One Realtor in the East Bay community of San Ramon recently announced she had a Chinese investor arriving in a couple of weeks that was interested in buying up to 100 homes in Antioch and Brentwood, CA.

It seems every street in Antioch and Brentwood has at least one home for sale on it. In some of the neighborhoods we have been through, you find 4 or five homes for sale on some streets. Many of these properties are vacant and bank owned.

The situation is far from over. You can find continuing signs of more homes going into the foreclosure process. Lawns are dying and home maintenance is suffering.

Homes that sold for $800K+ a few years ago are now being priced in the $300K range. Rents are rising and this is increasing the potential for positive cash flow investment properties in the East Bay Area – something very hard to accomplish with the high property values in California.

Some golf course homes in Brentwood, Ca. are listed at prices that reflect almost no appreciation for the past several years. These are great buys for waiting for golf enthusiasts. Our recent tour through Antioch and Brentwood, confirmed our belief that these communities offer great retirement opportunities for baby boomers in San Ramon, Danville and other I-680 corridor communities.

We wrote about: Now is the Time to Buy that Retirement Home

Antioch and Brentwood represent a perfect buying opportunity for young couples looking for their first home. Housing this affordable is hard to come by in the Bay Area. The housing market will recover and when it does, the same affordable housing dynamics will push property values in Antioch and Brentwood back up.

When BART extends into Antioch, this will bring more upward pressure to home prices in the area. Population increase in the area is expected to be in excess of 40,000 in the next 20 years.

When the bottle-neck on Highway 4 in Antioch is removed, another positive factor for home value increase will be in place.

All-in-all Antioch and Brentwood currently offer some of the best real estate values for buyers and investors in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area.