Community center with pool, tennis, etc - 1min walkSchool district: 5-6-7Driving distances:Costco - 14minWalmart - 10minLakeline shopping mall - 11minAnd to the Tech side of things (big part of my speculation)Apple/Oracle/Accenture/TriNet - 7minElectronic Arts - 5minAmazon - 12minIBM - 12minDell - 14minVisa - 7minFlex - 6minCisco - 6minNvidia - 9minNational Instruments - 11minSamsung - 20min (insanely huge factory)Everyone above are huge huge employers with 100s-1000s of jobs and constantly hiring & expanding.Amazon is expanding to 800 new employees in “The Domain” new offices by 2020.Google expansion downtown Austin - 5000 new people, 800k sqft by 2022And to the best one!

Specifically, were projected returns fully realized, were fees and other charges excessive, were holding periods predictable, etc?

What are some strategies to really get a feel for a certain Market and be able to predict the future of to the best of your knowledge?  

On another side how many people predicted this downturn in 2016.

The Fed's plan has not changed but the market does not like the plan.I will never be able to predict the macroeconomic future but there is one certainty:  We have a CREDIT driven economy...borrow and buy and interest rates have a huge impact.

Don't try and predict the market or interest rates.

In other words, most Investors don't anticipate the down turn because they believe they can't predict the future.

But again not predicting it but there is the thought process that ( and or good reason) that these are loans that once taken are good until you sell the property etc.. the bank is not going to advertise this fact. you need to read it in the docs and I bet most of the MLO's at the credit unions don't even know what the docs say.. :)

More looking into duplexes up to four-plexes and the sort, the information I've understood on commercial can be a little less predictable

Just secure their loan via a deed of trust or mortgage (whichever security instrument is used in your state) to the property being loaned on.