They wait a while to do anything, and in the meantime the buying season is coming to an end or the market is softening. 

As the market softens (and it will at some point), the owners of the buildings bought recently at less than 1% rents with 80% loans will feel the pinch.

So, you would expect the economy to soften first before you see an impact to real estate, ignoring excessive speculation in the market.Since the economy has yet to break 2% in inflation, the Fed is likely to go slow on balance sheet easing or Fed rate hikes.There are a few things to look at with real estate: new construction starts, property supply and demand, rent demand, and a few others, Right now, the new starts have yet to recover.

And this is where my career is, so I can not move away.So I'm not quite sure how to proceed...1. buy a property that barely cash flows after all expenses, but I am living in it so I'm no longer paying rent to somewhere else2. or just wait until the market "softens"3. rent forever, look elsewhere for deals and investing...

West LA is softening a bit on demand. 

Could also put in one or two parcels, a god-send of a well and septic, water softener, and a larger house ...

Also, I think the softening in small multifamily is at least partially due to the softening in condos.

I am experiencing some softening downtown and am actually putting some of my rentals up for sale.  

It did take me a while (Cambridgeport, 2+ months, tried to get 8/1 but had to get 9/1 instead) to rent my place at what appeared to be market rent so it could have been the water or it could have been a softening of the market.

- Wanted to diversify my real estate holdings, felt I had too much in the Bay Area - and in the next recession/market softening, I want some cash flow that's more protected from market volatility. - Because the Bay Area is such a boom/bust environment, I wanted to cash in on the equity I had built up on my most recent purchase (the SJ condo) and move that money to a more stable real estate market. - Areas I looked into, Indianapolis, Atlanta, San Antonio, Cleveland, Memphis, parts of Florida. - First filter - any city that I read about that had good purchase prices compared to rental income I considered.