Yahoo Finance 
Why NFL great Carson Palmer is investing his millions in housing
Retired NFL great Carson Palmer isn't sitting inside his home office in Ketchum, Idaho, and throwing Hail Mary trades on dogecoin (though he acknowledges frequently checking the markets) with the millions he earned from 15 years as a star quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, Oakland Raiders and Arizona Cardinals.
When it comes to investing, Palmer is playing the long game and investing in multi-family and affordable housing, he said in a new Yahoo Finance Presents.
"That's where our focus has been the last three years, and we've got a handful of projects we have not brought to market yet. They're not currently ready to bring to market, but we're getting close on a couple," Palmer said.
Palmer said his timing couldn't have been better considering people continue to migrate from cities to suburbia amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In turn, that has caused inventories to dry up across the country while sending prices skyrocketing.
"There was a lot of folks trying to leave major metropolis cities and get to places like Idaho, and I'm just happy I got here before the rush happened, because now it's bananas. I mean, there's very, very little inventory and there is a ton of demand. And there's a lot of people that want to get out of California and Seattle, and Portland, and those are all feeding cities for our community here," Palmer explained.
Without question, the pandemic has caused a major upheaval in the U.S. housing market.
Major metropolitan areas such as New York City, Newark and Chicago experienced the greatest outbound migration in 2020, according to United Van Lines 44th Annual Migration Study. Meanwhile, lower density cities like Wilmington, N.C., and Boise, Idaho, (about a two and a half drive from Palmer's Ketchum) saw the largest inbound moves in the country.
The survey found that 57% of people moved last year due to changes in employment status or work arrangement because of the pandemic.
“United Van Lines’ data makes it clear that migration to Western and Southern states, a prevalent pattern for the past several years, persisted in 2020,” said Michael Stoll, economist and professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles in a statement. "However, we’re seeing that the COVID-19 pandemic has without a doubt accelerated broader moving trends, including retirement driving top inbound regions as the Baby Boomer generation continues to reach that next phase of life.”
As for Palmer — who is also an endorser for CBD player Kadenwood when he isn't buying and selling homes — he has a useful tip for all investors. That is to work your network of contacts, you never know what opportunities are out there in the wild. Palmer said he has relied on the alumni network of his alma mater USC.
"Typically you pay a lawyer for some of the advice that I've been able to get for free. So I'm really appreciative of all the people I've been able to reach — all the USC Trojans that have had so much success in the spaces that I've been looking at — just to give me advice and talk me through certain situations and be there as a sounding board for me," Palmer said.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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