Further, the gap is shrinking and it's shirking quickly.  

Yet, even in CA where property prices are up, and days on market are shrinking RealtyTrac says bank owned REOs have climbed even higher; by 74%.Demand is up too.

Take of that what you will, but I'd say demand isn't going to shrink whereas supply will slow due to inexperience, rates and home prices.

We are not doing anything about the supply side to increase labor and materials into the country...just mashing the demand side down to shrink to greatness.

North of Austin, Texas in the suburbs where I live(Population)Cedar Park, Texas 42,000 in 2008, now 77,000 in 2018Leander, Texas 23,000 in 2008, now 50,000 in 2018People with homes paid off feel like they are back to paying mortgages with what they have to set aside for taxes.Getting to where you don't want to add to your curb appeal.Everybody is moving here, but everyone can't afford the housing with the taxes here, so developers build tons of new apartment building (they are everywhere) But then the rents are through the roof trying to keep up in covering the taxes every new year, cash flow is the pits.This effects the demographics in the school districts as starter families can't buy in at these prices so elementary schools shrink while middle and high schools boom with more established families coming in with older kids. 

Agreed if they do not right the ship they will continue to operate, but with shrinking market share.

Lots of them had cedar posts for lally columns, and they tend to shrink a bit over the decades - especially if it wasn't properly kiln dried.That said, I've seen a lot of those homes where there were steel lally columns installed later, stabilizing the structure, but leaving the slopes in the floors.  

However, when I look at the stats, I see that the population of the town is slowly shrinking (about 0.5%/year since 1960s).

Rehab went as planned on both, however the first one was higher end and with the rates going up the buyer pool severely shrinked, second flip cash flowed more and was below the medium price range so that one I had no problem.

The CA investors, for example, come and pay 20%-30% more than what a local investor is accustomed to.This is the sign of the times when money is cheap, Yields are shrinking, and everyone chases Yields.Until the bubble burst...!