I fully expect something just short of the great depression within the next year.

If the major employer in town goes out of business or the economy enters a depression, your business may fail even though you're doing everything right.What key event or point in time, did you realize you had turned a corner, and you truly realized this was going to work?

Some say they annexed a lot during the depression.

But at some point you need to decide when enough is a enough....or be smart enough to not even try making money in the really depressed areas!

That is part of the problem with trying to decide how much cash to invest in...you don't know what your liabilities will be if the economy stays depressed for an extended period.

compare to Danbury and Waterbury  (I know Waterbury is depressed)  and Bristol Conn. 

In Rockford il, one of those severely depressed areas.

It actually passed the 3% rule which surprised me but it is in an economically depressed area.

Hi @Joseph Canini ,Have you tried going to the city permit department where your project is at and asking who do they regularly see filing for permits (more permits = more biz = more clients) Another route might be your local housing development or city housing authority, if you are in a depressed area of the city they might offer cheap loans for rehab and might have a list of GC's are approved to work with their programs

Beautiful day in Puget Sound to be shopping for depressed homes.