Which is why somone came up with the cute but somewhat depressing acronym of "swap till you drop". 

then some are just beat down depressed and don't care and do nothing. 

Many people suffer from a multitude of debilitating emotional distress, ranging from just wanting to feel more comfortable all the way to depression or PTSD.

However, the battle is more because the current residents don't want "us" to change the makeup of their neighborhoods - not because it has a depressing effect on property prices or because anyone is "taking over" the school district anytime soon.

We are talking about someone who has become depressed and would like a friend.

Don't know why the first drop occurred (great depression and banks calling mortgages?)

I stay out of the really depressed areas, though, I like Morrell Park area for low prices and few board-ups.

The opportunity for basic investing arbitrage is perhaps better than it's ever been or ever will be again in our lifetimes.Additionally, the benefits of leverage to be able to buy property (or other assets) at the currently depressed rates gives the ability to both dollar cost average and increase cash flow long-term (with the obvious risks of leverage if you use too much of it).Add these benefits to the benefit of the interest deduction (which is much higher than 20% if you're earning more money, btw), and the overall benefit can be extremely positive.Again, it's easy to approach this topic with a very narrow and simplistic view, but good investors realize that most things are not simplistic in this world...

Tampa has been through the ringer over the past couple of years - from what I understand the rental market has been pretty depressed and the quality of tennant pool has diminished considerably.

I was getting kinda depressed with some of the responses.Have you gone through the Section 8 application process?