And tbf you may end up with a with a being able to afford a rowhome in canton but might not have a rentable basement vs going to another part of Baltimore that you can more easily house hack but probably has less appreciation (Baltimore really is the tail of two cities, canton, Fed hill ,fells etc are growing the rest of the city is stable at best and shrinking at worst.) it’s also at least worth considering Baltimore county, plenty of affordable townhomes in the Catonsville & Towson areas, you might even be able to buy a single family in parkville which is an underrated area imo. 

They shrink with the type of assets you are buying.

Buying properties that lose money, that cost you more money, is how you shrink.

There is a day of reckoning coming for commercial debt as between a shrinking office market and multifamily notes coming due which will raise debt service to levels that will likely put many multi unit properties underwater as rents data have also flattened and more than 50% of consumers spend more than 30% of their income on rent which is adding pressure to rent increases even inspite of low rental inventory. 

You can use education to "shrink" the time needed for you to achieve your goals.

Avoid shrinking or cyclical sectors like energy (oil) or anything else commodities related and manufacturing (sorry!

I see your point about the middle class shrinking but I think a lot of that has to do with a huge cash economy in CA. 

I would avoid that zip code based purely on the fact it has a shrinking population and has for a very long time.

It would actually shrink your lending options tremendously if you bought a property in an LLC.

When you change a standard SF home and want to sell, it does shrink your buyer pool.