What is a recession? 

The great recession hit and things slowed to a crawl... and now both towns extend to the county line.

Cap rates are 4-6%; SD is at the top of the market (post recession highs), virtually no vacancy factor in SF, OC, and SD.

Prior to tech it was all timber or forest products and AG .. and its defiantly NOT a business friendly state as we compare it to Texas ,  SC  AL  MS  and other states that are really attracting big business.. so some like it that way others think its not good for the state.. about 80% of the state is extremely rural and since timber Fishing and such died out from the good ole days those areas are and have been in recession or depression for the last 30 years.. just like a dead and dying one industry rust belt city or area.. no different.. 20 to 30 % unemployment.. etc etc.

Personally I would put that money into some self storage REIT’s like CubeSmart (CUBE) Extra Space Storage (EXR), Public Storage (PSA), Life Storage (LSI), and National Storage (NSA).They claim to be recession proof but every sector has its own hit to the bottom line in a downed economy.I have a good junk of my investment money in cubesmart and i get a respectable 3.64% dividend return on top of appreciation. 

After the RMA was passed, house prices started shooting up:RecessionEven if a recession occurs like in 2008, I don't think it will have any major affect on house prices.

Hi Ted i have hold multifamily rentals through the great recession.

Its also to do with where the market is at, at the top of the market it is much more challenging to achieve higher returns, in the recession recession there are opportunities to buy houses at a discount so provided rents stay the same the returns will be higher. for example, i see that in Memphis back in 2007 house sold for 100k, then 2013 same house sold for 55k and now 2016 its selling for 80k. 

I heard this happened to Phoenix and Las Vegas during the Recession. 

Parts of it, like Virginia Country Club, have always been quite expensive, even in the recession, but there are a bunch of smaller post-war cookie cutter houses on the outskirts that are good first time homes.