Like I said I get this thought process when you own a home in Kokomo or Muncie or some little town in rural Illinois or Rochester buffalo etc.. were values peaked 20 to 30 years ago and have eroded and the only reason they have rebounded a little is this craze to own these as rentals.. 

These days houses in this range tend to be in C- to F areas because the A to B areas those houses have rebounded to 100k to 150k pricing and up etc.

In hard times they cut that out to not at all or very infrequently to save money and eat at home or cheap fast food places.Right now a medium size restaurant could do well given the economy is rebounding in many parts of the country.The big franchises have the edge when the market cycles.

Home Prices Projected to Begin Rebound in 2011

If the retail market rebounds these properties should increase substantially.

The days of 'pick a price & lets see what we can get' are over for now.Sellers & Realtors will be working harder to get homes sold.The RE market goes up & down like any other market.I think we will see a rebound in the future.

The market has rebounded and that strategy has gone out the window.

To further the 'lift and shift' discussion, WSJ had an interesting article on the young driving an urban rebound.Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/young-drive-an-urban-rebound-1420250736This is still relevant to @David Krulac original stats on the moves as there may be a relationship to those states seeing an influx with cities there. 

Can someone teach me how to buy real estate with no money down with a rebounding credit score?

You might point out that the crash has caused values to drop, but they are not buying an investment they are buying a home and values are expected to rebound.