The shitter the little town the better*transient population exceed natural houses available so with BAH the prices for rent tend to be higher than mortgage*Not all bases are created equal- the key is to know your base.

I'm actually in some smaller towns (5 to 15k in population depending on the town) and I always have comps on rentals.  

a little help w the book ideas as well as the never ending sometime populates, sometimes doesn't @ sign

Your town is likely one of hundreds and thousands where population growth is declining.

Besides the new behaviors for GenX/millenials is the fast aging LA population.

My concern for Chicago is that the population is slowing significantly compared to the other large metropolitan cities like LA, NY, Seattle, SF, Dallas and property taxes are high.

I would look at the City in general, the kind of demographics that it has, employment opportunities, business opportunities, population growth, peoples influx or exodus etc. that tell me if city in general is growing and what the prospects will be in coming year for example, if you are in Dallas - you would notice lots of influx of people, you would see lots of companies moving in and setting up there offices there, so all these are good signs in general and should be a good place to invest.

Sadly because they are over populated with 400 dogs the dogs that are there are not as well as taken care of as they should be either.There is a push by the rescue community to save as many dogs as we can.

You are in Orlando, Fl - a hot market where Hispanics represent 25% or more of the population. 

And the real easte market there is much softer and slower to turn than any populated area i think they have had it on the MLS for 3 months or so.