Its the cash flow that allows you to sit on houses as the prices plummet.

There are several markets in the US that exhibit such behavior, let's pick for example South Chicago where the local economy is plummeting and rising crime rates are pushing small cities into bankruptcy depressing the real estate prices even further.

However, I'm worried about the market being "too hot" or prices being too high - I have money for the downpayment and can comfortably pay rent, but I don't want to buy something at the wrong time and then have the place plummet in price.My budget for a 1-bedroom apartment is 250-400k, and I want to live in it for 5-10 years, and then rent it out for a reasonable price (or at least one that covers mortgage/HOA fees) after I move. 

Our entire financial and economic system would plummet. 

My preferred market here is seeing cap rates plummet as investors overpay for FOMO.  

I also know people who had to start from square one after the values plummeted and the renters stopped paying. 

One area could be four blocks long by two deep and then over one block the prices plummet and houses are more shells than full structures.Best of luck!

Prices are unlikely to plummet and rates are historically below average.Where do you see investment opportunities from a historic perspective?

We're hovering at about 1.2 months of inventory, all price metrics are in the double digit increase levels year over year, our active listings are down almost 55% from the same time last year, our total sales are increasing, and our average DOMs have plummeted to the lowest levels I've seen in as far back as I cared to research.

lumber is delivered by truck or rail  thats not the issue.. and there are plenty of logs actually in our area because of the big fires there is an over supply of logs causing the free market delivered log price to plummet this spring summer. which is the first claw back of prices i have seen in a long long time.