I choose not to fear the future but to look for niches of growth and a haven for thinkers of all brands.In this "world's worst"economy I find many new opportunities and I am exploiting two with much success.

Good to hear from you, and glad to already hear from Houston :) As far as Magnolia, I think it is a market that has a lot of potential, especially considering the rapid growth in the North part of Houston.

Although not a player in making comments yet, many posts, blogs, and podcasts have helped accelerated my growth.

If your goal is buy and hold, key indicators I value are the ratio of average purchase price to average rent, low vacancy, and commercial growth in the area.

I figure once I get 2-3, I can take a HELOC or something of the same substance to continue my portfolio growth.

That indicates that rent growth is probably going to disappear. 

DC however did not start it's path of growth until the mid 20th century, and had plenty of available land, so it was able to grow with suburban sprawl as opposed to other cities with less land to spread out onto.

There are a lot of people that see value here.Some people may not be impressed when they consider investing here, but if they take a deeper look at the local economy and growth that we have, it makes our market look great.

This will be a great opportunity to assist each other in our growth.

I love the idea that you're targeting these institutions as I truly believe these places (Hopkins Medical Facility, Universities, etc) will be the difference in long term growth here in Baltimore.