You may see people getting more nervous especially since the market has been red hot, Dow hitting 20,000 and articles being written which predict that market is now overvalued or volatility index hitting high levels. 

and that's fair....something I don’t have to worry about quite as much since appreciation in the rural Midwest is not nearly as volatile as it in in your area.

Small percentages are so volatile in the equity department if your homes are in the beach area.

Crunch your numbers for several different scenarios to assess how volatile a deal might be. 

My market here in Cleveland tends to lag behind the rest of the country and the swings are not as volatile so prices are still 40-60% below the highs of 2007.As a buy and hold investor looking 30 years into the future - does it make sense to keep these assets until I retire our should I sell them if the market here goes back up in 5-10 years.Example - the house I picked up in a Cleveland suburb for 50K sold for 120K in 2006 - if the market reaches this level should you always sell if you are looking long term.

If you are still buying, volatility is a good thing, because you get the benefit of dollar cost averaging.Sooo many people follow the media hype about what the stock market did on one day and they act like it means something dramatic. 

short term is volatile within about 30 to 45 basis points it seems - considering what the market has done over the last few weeks.

But I am new, so it's expected :) The crazy volatile 2X and 3X ETFs seem like a way to win or lose big fast.

It also has a toolkit that you can get to play with the models.Comparison of different option models,"From Black Scholes to Black Holes" from Risk/Finex.For the pure Buying and Selling of volatility trading approach, this is what we use today mostly for longer-term market neutral vol plays on liquid issues, "Buying and Selling Volatility" by Kevin B Connolly is a good, simple book.

But I'd wait for the next spike in volatility.