I did look future prediction of crime rates through some gov and other websites but I could not find any predictions 2) Good point.

Then, knowing you estimated future value and the current price, you can calculate the appreciation rate.Better to just look at current cash flow and assume the future in unpredictable.Read "The Black Swan" to get an idea of the futility of trying to make predictions.

unfortuntately, i predicted this as i read your thread....best policy i have is to go ahead and evict..and tell tenant, i'm happy to work with you, provided you pay all debts, late fees and court costs before court date...

Take the higher number in the range you predict on each expense.

I predict that by the end of Obama's first term.

The only draw back to the cards is not being able to predict the future.

I can't predict the future for sure but I can get a sense of what I think is reasonable. 

The buyers have to know what their predicted loan balance is before they buy.

The predictions for my area for example are less then half of the two previous years.If you know you won't be holding the property long term, better sell this year.

If you are looking in a cookie cutter addition where every house is basically the same and all of the houses are within a few years of each other finding the market value is simple you just look at what identical properties have sold for over the past 12-24 months.Moving out of the predictable additions makes the process a little more difficult however if you are looking in areas where a majority of the the homes are being bought by owner occupants the process is still relatively simple.