And, Albany seems to have arrested it's 50-year long population decline.  

The down town is getting a face lift and factories are not going anywhere so you will not see a decline. 

Although, I have learned the student population base in all schools in Illinois (besides ISU) has been declining due to the state government de-funding grants.

I'm worried about the market being at it's height, overextending leverage into properties with a HELOC, and losing my shirt in the event of declining home values.

With the luxury market seeing a significant decline according to my Realtor, it may be best to cut your losses now, as the capital you currently have tied up in that deal can be used to generate income from other deals. 

So you could end up with 3 choices: a.) walk-away and kill your credit for 7 years, b.) lose a little each month in negative cash-flow (as rents likely declined), c.) pay the bank the additional loan balance at closing. 3.)

He points out that real estate has pretty consistently gone up over most of our life times because of the baby boomers, but now that they are down-sizing and dying off, real estate will decline over the next 20 years.

So looks like with bond yields making all time lows, mortgage rates also continue to decline to record lows or very close to those levels.

.* Through the 1950s and 1960s, the use of exterior lead-based paint declined significantly, and ended by the early 1970s.* In 1971, the federal Lead Poisoning Prevention Act was passed.* In 1978, the federal government banned consumer uses of lead paint.

The critical consideration in these markets will be to find zip codes where the population is growing, because zip codes in which the population is declining will result in declining values over time and perhaps declining rents as well.I've always liked Albany as a market, though I have not invested there because there is very limited product in the larger multifamily space.