I live in North Georgia and a few people have said the town in general has declined since the casino was built but I figured that would draw more interest and the numbers still look pretty good.

Scott's book on estimating rehab costs, it's a must read in this area: https://store.biggerpockets.com/products/the-book-on-estimat...In addition to that, I would check out my article on due diligence.

https://store.biggerpockets.com/products/start-with-strategy?

In cities with significant and sustained population growth, rents and prices will rise faster than inflation, enabling financial freedom.Conversely, rents and prices rise slowly in cities with static or declining populations because the current housing inventory is sufficient.

For each of the SMA you can see which areas are growing and which areas are declining. 

More than likely, the loan officer on your file either A) didnt know their own product very well, or B) glossed over this aspect in order to get the loan to closed due to a lack of integrity. 

For acquisition, I use my local hard money lender that holds the best loan product with a 100% purchase/100% rehab hard money loan!

So will see how that all shakes out for PDX. really the affordable is in Townhouse production by the large production builders thats about as good as it gets..

The E-Myth by Michael Gerber- Start and operate your business with the consumer in mind... not you... not your product or service.

@Sean MacDonaldI think you summed it up in your observation of your clients, it's very typical here in the valley that the number of transactions will decline right before an election and then those buyers just like your clients will get back in and the number of transactions will pick back up in the months following the election.