Commercial areas (Germantown Ave/Greene St.) seem depressed at the moment, but it's easy to imagine more bustling streets with nicer retail, restaurants and bars. 

Well, that was depressing...

If you spent a couple hours walking around there, you'd see that while there are some signs of revitalization, Vine City is an economically depressed neighborhood with many blighted properties like this one.  

(Probably for less than 60K because if I did my math correctly, that's about all I could afford)My question is this...do I wait until I have more income and better credit to buy a multi-family property that I can live in 1 unit and rent out the other 3 or 4 (MF's are where I want to end up in the future), or do I buy an awful SF home in a depressed area for 15K or 20K, put a few bucks into it, and hope that I can turn a profit?

A few of my rentals in the Midwest are in areas that are considered depressed or less than desirable to some but our strategy is to provide clean, safe, and attractive homes to tenants that are generally grateful for an opportunity to stay in areas close to family, work and school.

Really depressed market here for the past few years - basically, the amount of time I've been investing.Aaron

That said, the markets can be bubbly, rents are always depressed (because so many locals have big family networks and lots of basements to fall back on in tough times), and competition is high from out-of-state investors and a very entrepreneurial population. 

If we are really going to go to a complete collapse, not just a recession or depression, it does not matter if you paid cash for a property or not.

Taking all of the factors you said in consideration, what would you say would be your absolute ideal NNN purchase in today's market that would weather a recession (maybe even a depression)?

Do you have the reserves to "feed the alligator" should buyers depress?