(First rule of plumbing: poop flows downhill.) 

The experience was not like this over the last couple of years but seems to have gone downhill recently. 

@Nicholas Coulter Yeah, to me it seemed like March and April closings was the peak of the market and all down hill from there.

Moral of the story, the tax treatment that you suffer from starts at the top and rolls downhill toward you.  

During the last crash it went down hill for five years or more before it started recovering.

Here’s where things went downhill...When I made the offer, tenants were still in the house.

:)Ever since they eliminated the requirement for a rocket scientist degree to qualify for a RE license, it's been down hill.

I can tell you from experience that once a tenant goes dark and is unresponsive, it is all down hill.

Maybe there are a couple of neighborhoods which have gone downhill, but overall I am not sure where you are getting that and/or who is telling you this information.

I had EVERYTHING spec'd out since I couldn't be there those days and returned to see a bucket of pre-mixed mortar-right there I knew I was F'd since you will NEVER see a tile pro with a pre-mix bucket, its all bag mortar and it was downhill from there.