Determine the level of demand currently for the field your considering along with the supply of workers.

In case the tenant goes sideways on you, their caseworker (be aware they're over-worked) can pull their voucher since there's 10* (maybe exaggerating) the demand as supply.

A key flaw your making in things is associating various markets unto each other, and things just are not that simple, the economy and GDP, stock exchange, commodities market, forex and real estate market have connections but are not tied unto each other and what affects one may affect another in various different degrees, or not at all. 08/09 collapse was a combination of bad speculative trading meet over-supply of real estate with a gravy coating of capital contraction.

Unless you are supplying the furniture, there’s no reason for you to be concerned about their claws and scratching.

Rest assured: it will be put to the test over the next 12-24 months.Your sales contract should have specified that time frame in which all pertinent documents were supplied to you. 

This supply limitation will inherently limit how many deals close in the months ahead.

As for SFH, the supply has dwindled down and we are seeing strong demand.

What are some tips of determining the supply of rental properties in an area for someone with out a real estate license and wants to do the research?

Did you look at comps and do a full appraisal rebuttal with a written narrative and comps supplied to compare the ones used or in question? 

Divide the current number of homes for sale by the quotient from step 2 and you'll get the month's supply of homes. 6 is considered a balanced market.