Most areas saw modest rent increases and a few even experienced a decline. 

Since the area is declining in population, won't this eventually cause real estate prices to fall?

pid=1593Houston Real Estate Highlights in January:• Single-family home sales fell 8.1 percent year-over-year, with 4,100 units sold, marking the third consecutive month of declining sales;• Days on Market (DOM) for single-family homes lowered from 68 to 65 days;• Total property sales tumbled 8.4 percent, with 5,011 units sold;• Total dollar volume declined 4.4 percent to slightly more than $1.3 billion;• The single-family home median price edged up 1.4 percent to $222,000, reaching a January high;• The single-family home average price increased 2.4 percent to a January high of $277,483;• Single-family homes months of inventory was at a 3.7-months supply, up from 3.2 months last January and equal to the national inventory level;• Townhome/condominium sales fell for a fifth straight month – down 10.5 percent, with the average price down 2.3 percent to $188,268 and the median price down 2.8 percent to $154,250;• Lease properties saw their strongest performance since November 2017, as single-family home rentals climbed 16.5 percent with the average rent up 0.4 percent to $1,755;• Volume of townhome/condominium leases surged 16.4 percent with the average rent down 0.8 percent to $1,504.

We could either use it all to pay off some of our credit card debt to increase our credit scores and so that when do invest (we want to use the BRRRR strategy) we can do so without worrying too much about being declined for a refi because of our debt/scores.We have about 24k total debt just in credit cards, so we'd have around 9k still after paying the 15k off.Our goal is to invest out of state where it isn't so expensive, but now typing this out I'm not even sure if we could get a regular loan to purchase an out of state duplex with our down payment if our debt isn't lowered and credit scores aren't brought up? 

Of course you may get some significant appreciation in the downtown core but if the market flattens out or declines then you will be stuck with negative cash flow. 

The buyers, with good reason, were spooked, and tried to re trade at $100,000. we declined, and they attempted to breach contract. but the buyers agent never collected an EMD, so after months of back and forth with a lawyer involved we are now stuck with a nice $8,000 legal bill and still no EMD or compensation for locking the house up for over 5 months. holding costs in upstate NY will make your stomach churn.... why does anyone live there?

Home sales growth declined five percent last September, so it’s good to see that the area housing market held steady in September 2018.

Over time rents go up, payments stay the same, and the real value( purchasing power) of the debt declines with the value of the dollar.I’d recommend the book What Every Real Estate Investor needs to know about cash flow by Frank Gallinelli.Daniel Amerman also has a good series on how interest rates and inflation create this wealth transfer.

I use population/growth or decline.. types of / major employers (best are big stable companies like tech, universities, governmnet centers, hospitals etc). 

Essentially, youhave a prepay and it declines as your term passes but it is also linked to bond prices.