However, I quickly found that multifamilies were in declining neighborhoods, which I didn't want to deal with at the time.

For the reasons @Doug Smith explained, you probably will not be able to get away will using a personal loan as the source of your down payment on a house.But even if you could get away with it from a lending standpoint, I don't think it's wise that you get into a 100% financed deal (especially in a declining market).My vote is that you forget about the personal loan.

Isn't the midwest like Ohio declining populations? 

Expect 10-20 percent decline due to the slow down.

LOL I just got one of these this morning that had a pre-approval/decline option of the dates.

Hello, Bradley.You are correct that unfortunately your deal didn’t go as planned.After the original lender you went to declined your transaction, you came to us to close in a few days, and you could not give us the documents needed to close your deal in time.Condominiums require documents from the HOA, and without those we didn’t feel comfortable closing your deal.- The Bavex Team

I have noticed how drastically prices decline when you move out of fairfax and Loudon county.

If you get rid of the oilfield I have a feeling you'll lose a good bit of the population permanently - the oilfield has been in a slow steady decline for the last 10 years or so - is it going away, definitely not, but the increased regulations/taxes has slowed the volume (this is my personal experience anyway).

We almost did, the only thing that kept us was the declining population.  

As an aside, a buddy of mine in LA sent me an article talking about how Lafayette home values have been declining in value as the supply keeps going up.