I think an underreported issue is that the prime first time homeowner demographic are 'children of the housing collapse', who grew up watching their parents and friend's parents lose their homes or be stuck with negative equity.

Many do not predict another 07-08 collapse as that was the perfect storm of several causes.

Even during the housing collapse where we saw 25% drops in Montgomery County, 50% drops in PG County...certain neighborhoods in DC did not go down at all and continued to rise.

@Jonathan Twombly What's a newbie like us to do pending such a collapse.

 Owners of thousands of Los Angeles wooden apartment buildings at risk of collapse in a major earthquake will begin receiving retrofit orders as early as February 2016, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

Learning from others helps to collapse the time frames that are required to succeed.

Someone can say an areas has of job growth new development bla bla, and then a big factory closes or a military base shuts down, and the real estate market collapses, It's pure speculation.  

For the first 3 years after the great collapse all the turn key guys went to promoting IRA buyers.. all cash 60 % of all houses are bought with cash..

, repaired the stucco exterior, and put a bit of money into most of the units, but this purchase has been the best financial decision I've ever made.I did a cash-out refinance, and could probably do it again within the next few years if real estate doesn't collapse. :)

Can anyone who took advantage of the last collapse in 2007-2009 share insights/ strategies implemented to make the most of it?