You need to understand what each represents itself, but more so how they interact with each other and trend over time.

@Kishore Pathanjeli It gets crazy complicated when you try to mix shifting demographic trends with a decline in retail with commercial loan interest rates resetting with municiple solvency with...with...with...mixed across geographies to come to a single conclusion.  

An anticipated increase in single-family construction in 2017 will start to reverse this trend.

Also, I agree with you that the most likely scenario is a flattening of prices and rents in the short term, or maybe even a very slight dip, but in the long run the historical record speaks for itself and I don't see those long term pricing trends changing in the future.The in-law cottage is interesting ...

I wouldn't be surprised to see the downward population trend, but I don't think the Milwaukee economy is comparable at all to Detroit and the decline of that city - that's a special case. 

I do frequently walk new properties to see new trends, get ideas for rehabs and scope out the competition.I'm not that patient lol :)

I've been using Zillow and Trulia to look at recent sales in the area as well as city-data.com to look at the price trends over time.  

I have been noticing the same trend in the larger commercial market as well.  

What variables are in place and what trends are you seeing?

You get all the seasons  (it normally snows 1-2x, but doesn't stick for more than a day), it's 2 hours from DC, 2 hours from the beach, 1 hour from the mountains, huge booming brewery/winery trend, low cost of living, amazing schools, and also...