Well, its all speculation, right? 

Most of the good contractors don't really need the business bad enough to want to bid on "speculative" work like that.

Additionally areas that are more speculative will likely soften as investors who are holding the properties for flips or appreciation plays back out.

My argument to that, is that’s not real estate investing, that’s real estate speculating (especially in this market).To one of your other comments: Yes, there clearly MUCH better markets to invest in for cash flow than the PDX/Vancouver area, let alone the entire PNW.

I think using a previous recession as an example is  reasonable but even that is very speculative. 

Obviously anything can happen in an uncertain times, but a fall in home prices is still looking very unlikely from today's numbers.In 2005 the housing industry started to sicken because homes were being used as speculative commodities not for places to live. 100% loans from unscrupulous lenders who went bust between 2007 and 2010.

@Ellie Narie - everyone is trying to speculate on covid19 housing effects.

Remember what crashed: it was not the economy - it was the lending system that crashed with sub-prime loans, which had also lead to an over production of housing nobody needed and was pure speculative.

You have the potential of appreciation in these coastal metros, but ALWAYS invest for cash flow, otherwise you are speculating.

Again the Government is coming after the "evil speculators"  but this time it is not the Oil Companies but Landlords.