In a economy were unemployment is at its highest in years, monster companies going down like (insert sexual joke here), banks limiting their output of lending, the stock market, US economic woes, etc.

Stating these "desirable" results as an objective either tags the writer as inexperienced or as someone who does not understand the free market economic system (such as a hollywood liberal!).

If you believe in economic cycles, these opportunities may not last once confidence gets back to "normal", people "see" the cost of ownership value proposition, and acquisition money drives prices back to rational market levels.

From an economic standpoint the FEDs need to show that housing is moving forward, however slowly.

These areas are exactly as you describe, economically depressed.

Disclaimer: I am fairly new to the real estate investing game and my expertise is on the construction side not on the real estate or economic side, but I do try and keep up as best I can.With that being said we had a speaker at a local REIA here in Sacramento go over some trends he saw in the real estate market.  

Off the top of my head I can think of regional economic trends, population movement, metro and state tax rates, Chamber of Commerce economic forecasts.

We plan to build an economical starter home.

Is managing a 4 Unit easier than 10 Units or is it actually more efficient due to unit economics?

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