The question becomes when does an asset hit bottom and start the upswing to where you have risk but it is decreasing as the market is improving.Hotels do well when corp. send people on business trips and more people vacation with excess income.   

For diversification purposes, a $100,000 investment in RE at 4:1 leverage gets you 4 properties, a stock portfolio of $100,000 will usually include at least 25 positions decreasing risk to the portfolio as a whole.

Overall property supply across the entire net lease sector decreased by more than 17% from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

You will need the current assessed value (typically from the county or city web site) and an understanding of how the assessed value will change (e.g. just based on sale price, comparables, etc.).If the new assessed value increases, cash flow decreases and obviously the reverse is also true.Since property taxes are a major portion of the expenses, making sure you know not just what they ARE but what they WILL BE is important.Oren

The populations are decreasing from what I have read and even decreasing in Chicago.

On the market for over 500 days without offer they had decreased the price by the time I saw it to to $69.

You don't mind the risk of negative cash flow or being upside down should the market decrease; and3.

If you take it a step further and find someone to assing the contract, we'll say, at a profit, that degree of speculation has decreased to an assignment flip, and thereby limiting your profit to the assigned contract.

While poor lending practices are certainly a partial contributor of the financial crisis we're seeing, I personally believe there are more fundamental issues, such as a decrease in domestic production, low liquidity among individuals, corporate greed (and personal greed), drop-off in public educational standards, etc.While the lending rules may certainly have hastened (and concentrated) the financial crisis we're seeing, I personally believe it would have happened eventually, even without lower lending standards.So, I disagree with the statement that it "could not have happened without government intervention in the lending market."

Rent decreased about $150 a month because there was a flood of available rentals.