Pushes energy prices upwards.  

Cons: Economic growth can be slower in certain areas, so choose markets carefully.

A lot of people are moving out of California because of the pandemic, lack of economic support, and high taxes/cost of living. 

Ultimately, does anyone really ever set out to do real estate as a minor part of their life's ambitions and succeed in it as a side hustle that they spend a carefully limited amount of their time and energy on?

We've had 80 more or less uninterrupted years of peace and economic stability.

Tracking these company movement is good way to track new economic activity.

However, if this is during an economic downturn when default would likely happen, there might be no equity in the house for the original seller, and I can't see how a seller would be comfortable being ultimately responsible for a mortgage that might last 20-30 years.

Im in Massachusetss so I had Mass save (program to help with energy usage paid for by the utility companies) come through to do an energy assessment and identified there is little insulation in the entire building and that there is a lot of knob and tube wiring throughout the property.

These investors are typically large financial institutions looking for safe, predictable returns, such as pension funds, insurance companies, and banks.Key concepts to understand in economics and finance are risk and reward.

That will depend on your time, capital, energy, and skills.