I'd be much more concerned about things like crumbling foundations, buried underground oil tanks, weird/illegal/collapsing extensions, etc.

I also spent three years as as a loan officer until the mortgage industry collapsed in 2007.I recent years I have been in the residential and commercial remodeling business. 

Granted, built in 1875 is older than most but if it has stood this long I doubt it will collapse in the next ten years.I'd buy it if the numbers were right. 

Nice try though.... :-) Nope, the roots of the 2008 housing collapse are widely blamed on the loosening of collateral requirements for the Big 5. 

Maybe that's the reason why there are no aliens: technology-bound societies collapse sooner or later on a system failure?

If the deal collapses and I would lose everything, I'm out.

That's probably true, but most of the area has still not entirely recovered from the Great Recession--only recently have home prices in most begun to approach 2005 levels, and those prices are still way off from 2007/right before the collapse.

If the US dollar collapses, the value of that mortgage ON PAPER is going to drop like a rock.

I know, I know - I'm insane for thinking that the economy is a ponzi scheme and could (will) collapse.

I have always been interested in real estate, but graduated college in the middle of the collapse of the housing market.