I agree that a new camera with a wide angle lens and tripod helps immensely.

Despite strong population and employment trends, building outpaced growth, and resulted in a dearth of housing during the market crash.Now, what the data you listed above will likely tell you is whether the market is likely to stay strong in terms of market rents and whether there will be continued market demand.

Sure, it's neat to have cash, but for me - cashflow is the driver of growth.

Would this be a solid driver for growth and appreciation in the area?

The basics of a good real estate investment seem unchanged at the core: location, population growth, neighborhood demographics, supply and demand, surrounding amenities, etc.

Jobs cause population growth.

That's where the growth will be over the next couple of decades.

I've found Jon Holdman's posts to be immensely helpful.

Zillow is gobbling up lots of real estate related companies ...Zillow buys again: $16M for rental search firm HotPadshttp://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2012/11/zillow-buying-rental-real-estate.htmlZillow to Acquire HotPads To Accelerate Growth of Rental Marketplacehttp://zillow.mediaroom.com/index.php?

Look at unemployment trends and economic growth between 1935 and 1940 and you'll see the spending did a decent job of expanding the economy.But, the best example of stimulus spending was WWII.