If oil doesn't rebound, Alberta could be in trouble as the major draw there is high paying jobs.

If the area is experiencing a rebound it will bring your value up as well. 8)

Not as lucrative, but still a nice return when the market rebounds.

The hurricane slowed us down somewhat, but sales are rebounding some. 

But the fact that stock market is rallying, if we examine it closely, it happened only because one sector is rebound very quickly, which is tech economy.

@Shaun Reilly  your exactly right  those that bought in 07 and 08 peaks  many to most are still underwater.. those that bought in the best markets have gotten back to parity basically and even made gains... its this new crop of investor that jumped in 2010 ish that are going to benefit on the rebound...

I am just curious, but has the Birmingham market rebounded much?

You don’t find the best deals buying marketed properties...yes you can find them but they are few and far between, as you said.The real deals are the rebounders, where the buyer they picked fails to perform and the deal comes to you after.

If you choose to go that route then I would keep the down payment in a escrow type account in case you need to forclosed on them in the future but going that route can give you and them so options like you can alway ask for a balloon payment in say five years so that gives them time to repair their credit and should be able to get financed buy then, also maybe the market should have rebounded fully by then.

I understand from a few friends of mine who grew up there that the city is really rebounding - makes me interested.