If you are buying and holding then price fluctuations after you buy are largely irrelevant.Most people don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars lying around to just scoop up a few properties without financing.

You can mitigate the risk by buying the right property at the right price as well so that you have enough equity to deal with market fluctuations.

I'm curious what causes cash sales to fluctuate.

Back when the economy was crashing, I was thinking about what hard assets one could buy other than gold, which is easily stolen and the value fluctuates.  

However it does seem to fluctuate often.

.*** GRM is strictly a function of Revenue, where as Cap-Rates (my preference in evaluating a deal) takes into account Operating Expenses ("OpEx").I think this is especially important Connecticut where OpEx can be high because of 1) high taxes [especially in Bridgeport], 2) the majority of properties are old (requiring more for both reserves and ongoing repairs), and 3) the high cost of labor/service contracts in the state.That being said - and somewhat contrary to the above - many commercial brokers in CT of mid to large multi-families typically trade properties on a price per unit basis (and the price will fluctuate depending where in B-port).

Not to spark a causation v. correlation argument but I wouldn't be surprised if real estate, if only for a short period of time (3-5 months) also showed a distinct fluctuation before and after election periods.For readers and investors, it's still more important to understand that time in market > timing the market and I always advise my clients that a deal makes you money on the purchase. 

How do I calculate if I'm using the HELOC with a fluctuating interest rate?

Since pricelabs adjusts based on demand, it handles a lot of the fluctuations for us (within the set parameters for min/max.

Affordably priced housing is a great investment choice if you're worried about the fluctuations in the property market and want to get the most value for your money.