Even now that our median home price is around $185k it is still low compared to other most major cities in the US.

Personal opinion again....i would sock everything away into a large expense fund and once I had $10,000 or so...plenty for most major scenarios...then you can start spending money for whatever you want....perhaps another house.Regarding passive income tax....at this point in the game, this is all pass through income to you and just adds on to whatever you make elsewhere.  

i moved to los angeles county fairly recently from nyc however my heart is forever in asia, my mom's ancestors' homeland. well my dad's a caribbean islander of mostly native amerindian descent but i find the caribbean is heavily europeanized, even with the afro & latino majorities. so, i tend to vacay and expend humanitarian efforts moreso in asia than here in the 'new world'.so if i could move anywhere within USA it would have to be even more 'West'ward til proximal to the Far East - HAWAII, GUAM AND OR MICRONESIA(!)

Some European countries and the ECB have cut key interest rates to below zero.  

Also if you are interested in doing any overseas investment Service Credit union is one of the only banks I have seen that has a direct payment method for European banks.  

Since our economy seems to be interconnected with other economies, especially the European Union which Greece is a part of, wouldn't what is happening in Greece affect us?

In the post-crisis period, since the slump of the realty market in 2008, European countries followed the USA in trying to support small business initiatives.

Some people like you want a house paid for others like me could care less, My wife and I plan to rent in retirement while still holding our portfolio of properties (I think I should write a blog post about this) The short version is we plan to sign 6 month and year leases at various Caribbean islands and European cities, basically a life of travel, at a slow place, if we are liking a place we might stay a few years but in general we will mange our rentals via email and the like while traveling slowly around the world.

One option to consider to gain more equity on the back end is a European waterfall; investors get a pref + 100% of proceeds from equity events until their capital is returned, after that point you could potentially have a more favorable split than with a traditional waterfall, say 60/40 or 50/50 instead of 70/30.

This is primarily (Read: exclusively) by using them for long-haul (European or Asian) airfare in premium cabins, paying careful attention to redemption rates.