The value of my investments is driven by rental income not arbitrary real estate values where as renters in a SFH devalue a property.  

Instead of, or in conjunction with, other savings vehicles, consider just ONE rental property and all the benefits of the right property will offer over time: Cash Flow, Amortized Equity, Passive Activity Losses that "may" lower your W2 tax bill if you have less than $125k earnings, benefits of inflation in that not only are tenants paying down mortgage debt and rents increase over time, the debt itself becomes devalued, costing less in actual dollar terms.

Although short sales are uncommon here due to the very hot housing market, the unskilled repairs and additions have significantly de-valued the home.  

ERGO you are in foreclosure in the first place.GFC meltdown saw values drop 20 to over 60% in certain markets  .. your 70% LTV loan was underwater right out of the gate.So to answer your questions.In General... you have a foreclsoureyour value is 10% less than it was when you made the loan.. reason flipper butchered the job ... and again depending on state it could take 1 to 3 years to actually foreclose and of course your not getting any payments.. so your interest is wiped out. your cost of doing the foreclosure again state specific.. and I have never met a defaulted borrower that paid the property tax's  ( and again state specific how bad this will be).. you have selling costs usually 8% and you normally have to spend money getting the home marketable I have never met a defaulted borrower who left a home in perfect shape.So you add 10% market devaluation  8% for sales costs.. 3% for foreclosure costs.. 2% for back taxforce placed insurance and utls.. and depending on the condition of the home 5 to 10% for rehab .. you can see how this eats into your 30%  .. then take states Like were i live and properly filed mechanics liens are super liens they jump ahead of your mortgage.. this can be thousands up to 100 thousands if your flipper totally screwed the subs. 

But, that takes on all the hundred types of Investment Risk, including the Devaluation of the Currency.

This is probably a cleaner approach, but I worry that a sale this low is going to devalue the neighborhood.

This is a mistake as it is a misconception that it holds tenants, it is only lost income,  and it is devaluing their property resale.

I suspect that we will all be waiting a lifetime to see rates back to were they were 2 to 4 years ago.. so I would not bank on that.. as for pricing.. if its a place to live then you certainly can just wait and see.. its not like your homeless or need to move other than you don't care for your neighbors.. markets always slow about now.. what will be telling in my mind is were we are at next Feb March April in the buying season as it were.I was in a conference this week here in Vegas and some of the speculation is that many of the commercial type loans that had 5 , 7 and 10 year calls  are going to stress those that had max leverage.. as the rates rise the cap rates rise to keep pace thereby devaluing the properties.. to the point some of these investors are going to need to bring some to significant amount of fresh capital to pay down their debt to get a refi.. and that will stress those assets and there could be a real buying opp in that sector.. at least that's what I gleaned from the talk I listened to yesterday... hope you find that dream home in the country !!!

Home owners do not want their homes devalued by having rentals in the community. 

seller just sprung this upon me, property is 5 acres, Does this de-value it?