@Alicia Marks Our brokerage was born of the '08' bust, and rapidly grew to dominate the SFR space. 

Sounds very similar to what is going on around here in Grand Rapids, MI.You gotta be fast, but not only that, you'll more then likely need to go above the asking price for the MLS houses.Everyone and their neighbor seems to be reinterested in real estate again!

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/General-Growth-files-for-rb-14945510.htmlNEW YORK (Reuters) - General Growth Properties Inc, the second-largest U.S. mall owner, declared bankruptcy on Thursday in the biggest real estate failure in U.S. history.Ending months of speculation, General Growth, along with 158 of its 200-plus U.S. malls, filed Chapter 11 while it tries to refinance its debts.But the ongoing global financial crisis made it impossible for General Growth to restructure outside of bankruptcy and could signal further troubles for other financial institutions who are General Growth creditors.The collapse underscores the pressure on U.S. commercial real estate with few sources of available funding.Chicago-based General Growth, which owns such valuable properties as South Street Seaport in New York, Fashion Show in Las Vegas and Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, listed total assets of $29.56 billion and total debts of $27.29 billion.The collapse marks a sad chapter for a company that has been growing since 1954, when brothers Martin and Matthew Bucksbaum decided to expand their family's grocery business and build a shopping center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.The company expanded steadily through both building and buying malls, the largest acquisition being the 2004 purchase of high-end mall owner Rouse Cos for $14.2 billion.

Another option may be to make offers that you could rapidly hand over to someone else.

Real estate is hyper local, there may be net migration out of chicago when count the south and west side but if look at blue line corridor, west loop, lakeview, rogers park, etc. its on fire and growing rapidly.

Dry wood termites surrender to rapid thermal death when exposed to their established lethal heat temperatures for as little as a 5 minute duration period.

Obviously, there comes a time when the incremental impact of "just one more" approaches zero but the example you are giving while emotionally appealing, is quite bogus.

Potentially someone could ride the rapid appreciation climb, capture the bulk of the price gain and then trade up.

Rapid increases in prices.

As soon as you have a job, so that you have income you can show, keep your eye out for zero percent interest credit card balance transfer offers, so that you can keep the debt from growing rapidly while you are trying to pay it off.Seriously, if you don't learn how to control your spending, you're never going to be able to develop financial security.