Prices fluctuate wildly even for a 3 bed 1 bath ranch home in the Richmond area.

My income fluctuates monthly between Legal Shield and vacation renting. 

Then prices  fluctuate wildly.  

Remember that an electrician does make good money after his apprentanceship but it is seasonal work so your household income may fluctuate throughout the year.

Most often it needs to be another real estate opportunity.If I were to select bonds or stocks or insurance annuities as my alternative investment, then to have an apples to apples analysis I must consider the risks involved, mgt. required, admin. and market fluctuations and then adjust these factors to mirror those applicable to real estate.Remember too, that $132 cash received clear on your opportunity investment, it goes through the similar analysis, that sum is reinvested for the best use of cash, otherwise you have a skewed view of the value of that annuity stream, what those payments are really worth.

I would think NOI for a given "A" property subdivision geared for military is pretty standard (rent is about the same, expenses are about the same, property taxes, etc.) so the only deviation is the purchase price which can fluctuate over the year.  

Saying material prices fluctuate beyond cost of living guesses in a pro forma, so there should also be a +/- factored.This is simply one model, no a rule not even a consistent theory, we don't have any SFR that rents at 2% in the area.

Like Trulia/Zillow etc. it seems go give a fairly decent assessment on the subdivision overall; however, the accuracy seems to fluctuate greatly when it comes to specific comps.In addition to that, some comps that had sold a month or two back were not even present.

A family working 2 jobs where hours and income fluctuates is different from a corporate salary type job.

Granted there has been fluctuations over the past 5 years but no significant overall change has occurred.Second the housing boom and bust were generally caused by the move to McMasions not the need for housing, IMO.