The only downside of that period was that the economy was highly volatile with periods of great growth followed by periods of extreme recessions.2.

Locate others with money and borrow from them, giving them a specific rate of return and security through a deed of trust, promissory note, and named on insurance policy.You can find them by starting with friends, family, business associates, etc. and move on to other public sources such as self-directed IRA owners or those with other retirement plans such as 401k's.Showing them a great rate of return, withouyt the volatility of the stock market in a proven system you have done should land you private lenders.

If all are relatively new the volatility of cash flow wouldn't seem to be as much of a concern (we can infer purchase price is affected here) as otherwise.All assets are based on their ability to perform.

Interest rates are very volatile right now.

Gas prices and the industry have been volatile.

Maybe your cash investors had the cash invested and are waiting for the markets to recover.Either way, I would't panic after four days, especially in this volatile economic market.Peter

I understand that the market is volatile right now...but surely the housing market can't sink any lower than it already has.

It's tough to compare ratios with data from only the past 10 years due to volatility of the market, but here are the ratios from my limited data:Median Income/Median Housing Price in Sacramento2006: $66,875/$345k = 0.192011: $55,085/$138,750 = 0.402014: $60,015/$208k = 0.29I would believe that ratio continues to decrease as the median Sacramento home price is now $277k, meaning median household income would have to grow to $80k to hold the 0.29 ratio and I don't believe it has climbed that high.This is very basic analysis but continues to support a decline in housing affordability it would be nice to look at consistent data from the early 2000s and late 90s, tacking onto that mortgage rates were roughly double 2 decades ago.If we are at the high end of housing affordability what will the imminent rate hike do to the market?  

The market is fairly volatile right now and I am not sure when it is going to come back down.

Our investments are in a stable community that has not seen the volatility experienced by other parts of the country.