Appreciation - While year over year, housing prices may fluctuate, in the long term, they will increase.

Regardless of market fluctuations I have set myself up for life.I have zero interest in holding income properties into my senior years.

This technique is also not usually too accurate, since grm's can fluctuate based on multiple factors.

I've since changed that as I am in an area of frequent hail activity and based on the fluctuations of hot and cold weather that the farmers almanac has predicted for this spring and into summer (and they tend to be eerily right), I'm anticipating some hail storms this year and am not in the mood to pay for the inevitable reroofs myself.

And if you're dealing with lower end property, your expenses are significant, and vacancies and values can fluctuate quickly.

Increased taxes, insurance, operating expenses, as well as market fluctuations etc are valid reasons to increase them.

I keep tabs on price fluctuations.

Don't forget that with more gas storage, the more you are at higher risk of cost fluctuations.

Long term appreciation is easily predicted if there is a fairly consistent long term track record to go by, but everything fluctuates in the short term so short term appreciation is all but impossible to predict.I personally don't choose to trade short term cash flow for long term appreciation because of the market I operate in and for the many other reasons I've explained.

It's weird, though, because market price fluctuates quite a bit with the seasons;  in 2 or 3 months, all the market rents across the city will be higher.