Sorry in advance for the long post...I have a family member with a home in Calgary Alberta that she would like to sell but given the hit to the housing market due to dropping oil and gas prices she doesn't want to sell now and take a loss, but doesn't she want to rent it indefinitely (the last time she did this she missed her opportunity to sell when the market was hot 2 years ago because she had tenants in place with a year long lease--well those same tenants renewed the lease in the spring and have now just broken the lease due to lay offs and leaving her high and dry)I proposed a lease option for her but need guidance on the numbers.It's a large luxury home in an A neighborhood but it's 33 years old and needs about $50,000 in work (paint, reinforce retaining wall, replace windows, etc etc)Her monthly payments are $2500.

I've lost my job twice in the last 3 years due to layoffs.

I have been researching RE as a means to supplement my income and retirement portfolio but after a round of lay-offs I am now looking for it to be my primary income.  

With local HP, Yahoo, Yelp, semi conductor companies, and IBM layoffs.

After my last layoff, I did some soul searching and realized that I.T. was not aligned with my life goals.

The housing market may be down, making homes more affordable, however unemployment may be going up due to layoffs (possibly creating tenancy issues and lack of job growth).What are your thoughts on investing in these markets?

@Minh Le - What is your take on the recent layoffs which are starting to happen in the bay area.

I was forced to reduce my expenses do to a looming layoff.

GHP stated that since April 2010, Houston has added over 736,000 residents and that energy industry layoffs have been offset by job creation in other sectors."

@Blake Norman I haven't seen a huge issue with the falling oil prices as of yet, but there are a lot of layoffs happening in the area with some of the energy companies.