Tampa Bay has been experiencing significant growth and change, and I’d love to gather insights from this knowledgeable community.How do you predict the Tampa Bay market will perform over the next five years?

I am not sure... but I would want to check out how zoning and permitting are going to dealt with as that could be a big challenge.Now to respond to your specific questions...While no one can predict what will happen regarding continued development in the oil fields... officials in North Dakota are planning for continued development from the current 5K wells in place and producing to 50K wells in ten years.

I see more risk in Real Estate, you end up liable for things you cannot know about or predict.  

No one can predict what will happen in the macroeconomy and when the next financial disaster will happen.One of my only gripes about buying a condo in DTLA is the HOA's.

Maybe it is work you are actually doing or you are hiring out but either way the same couple things end up more than they really should be.For instance, you can predict carpet costs well but half the time the tile guy runs over due to discovering extra surface prep is required.

I know we are not fortune tellers and cannot predict the future, but the definition of "long term" or "buy and hold" is important. 

In that case you are putting money into a long term savings account.Unless you are really sure that spending money in a very expensive market is the best thing you can do (some are very worried about investing away from home), I would focus some energy into learning about ways to partner and find someone doing deals that do make money (predictably) or if you get confident on your own do those remote deals yourself.

For 2018, Marcus & Millichamp predicts that 8,300 units will be completed, and vacancy will rise 30 basis points to 2018.

The challenge with any legal matter that requires a judge to rule is that neither  the outcome nor the timeline can be accurately predicted. 

I would believe the IRR is more difficult to calculate and predict as one has to make the best educated guess on the future value of the asset at some distant time.