The only hesitation toward Anchorage I have is the current net migration out of Anchorage and no promising signs of an economic rebound in the near future.

@Zack Karp I appreciate your comment on how max leverage can be useful for buy-and-hold investors, and certainly if a property is not being sold and tenants are still available to pay the mortgage + expenses, then it's not a terrible situation to simply stay put until the market rebounds. 

I don't retrofit but get EQ insurance and if an earthquake comes, at least I'll be in a better position to rebound financially if it's a total lose.Any owners out there with older properties that have decided not to seismic retrofit their rentals?

The push was giving up on the idea of the "unicorn" deal (perfect in every way) and building intrinsic confidence in myself- the belief that I'm savvy and determined enough to rebound and recover if things don't go as expected....even if they went TERRIBLY, and by sheer grit I wouldn't allow myself to tumble back into poverty. 

And thankful for the strong rebound in the economy.

Could we be waiting for a rebound that never comes?

The 2% rule may have been a fine metric after the GFC in 2009-2012ish, but as time went along and prices began to rebound, the 2% rule has became virtually impossible in all but a select few markets. 

Now it's rebounded my initial down payment and some gains so I want to make the best financial moves. 

It's hard to get people excited about "catching a falling knife" and you don't know you hit bottom until you rebound. 

Houston Real Estate Highlights in October Single-family home sales continued their post-Hurricane Harvey rebound as volume rose 7.5 percent year-over-year with 6,381 units sold;Single-family home sales remain 2.8 percent ahead of 2016’s year-to-date volume;Total property sales increased 6.6 percent with 7,614 units sold;Total dollar jumped 10.8 percent to $2.1 billion;The single-family home median price rose 3.9 percent to $226,491, which represents an October high;The single-family home average price increased 2.7 percent to $285,858, also the highest level for an October;Single-family homes months of inventory grew year-over-year to a 3.9-months supply, but is down from a 4.3-months pre-Harvey peak – the result of a surge in consumer demand for housing;Townhome/condominium sales rose 5.8 percent, with the average price down 1.1 percent to $195,393 and the median price down 3.1 percent to $153,000;Leases of single-family homes rose 13.6 percent with the average rent up 2.8 percent to $1,776;Volume of townhome/condominium leases jumped 34.8 percent with average rent up 2.9 percent to $1,533.HAR still encourages anyone who has housing available for temporary occupancy (up to 12 weeks) to please post it on our Harvey Temporary Housing page at www.har.com/temporaryhousing to provide housing to those in need.http://www.har.com/content/mls/?