Forget Fifth Avenue. OC's now one of the hottest destinations for retail investors, and Faris Lee Investment’s Matt Mousavi tells us why. (First of all, we don't have horses walking around in the middle of the street.)

Thank the master-planned nature of most of its cities, Matt says (he’s pictured in Vail, celebrating the Fourth with his family). This creates high barriers to entry for new development while boosting rent growth and real estate value appreciation for existing retail centers. They're already on the upswing since the local economy is moving along and jobs are being created (and with jobs comes to desire to buy stuff, sure as night follows day).

Matt and colleague Patrick Luther recently repped the seller in the sale of Foothill Center, a 19k SF, 95%-occupied shopping center at 20641-20671 Lake Forest Dr in Lake Forest. Investor interest came from far and wide, Matt says—Faris Lee made a point of marketing the property to target foreign investors, particularly Asian capital—and ultimately a private Chinese investor won out. The sale resulted in a 4.81% cap, one of the lowest on record for an unanchored retail center in south Orange County, he says.