We are largely in the affordable housing market and that has treated us well, but our commercial properties have also done well during this time.

I was looking for a place to live but couldn't afford anything in the area I wanted to be in on my own.

Hard to get good Refinancing while it's still a dump.Guaranteed they couldn't afford a motel for a month, and neither can I, and I find the idea of evicting people just to tear down the place and build it back up again to be distasteful to say the least.

@Josue Gudino if you plan on living in the house, you can afford it and have a stable job then now is a perfectly fine time to buy, because it doesn't matter if it goes down 5% because you wouldn't sell anyway. 

Some are turning into one year rentals bc they bought something they cannot afford when it comes down to all the expenses involved.I would be happy to share more of my views and projections.

If you can't afford to pay the principal on the loan then you have a negative geared property.

Concerning where to invest, I learned a lot on the way, here is some research that I did in 2018:Posh Grocery Store Affordability Indexfirst posted: 2018-05-19 07:53:43.214870As an out of state investor, the issue of comparing rental property nationwide is key.A naive approach comparison of median rental yield leads means that deeply blighted cities get compared with dynamic and affluent ones.Such an approach makes blighted cities more attractive.

The paycheck to paycheck class has gathered confidence over more than a decade that they could comfortably afford more and more. 

Buy what you can afford as soon as you can afford it (assuming you do the proper research) and snowball that into more and bigger properties over time. 

Those tenants could not afford the higher rents from direct road frontage and sightlines with nice larger back anchors like a Wal-mart, Super- Target, Home Depot, Costo, Lowe's, etc.Those mom and pop tenants did fine with lower rents and straggler customers willing to drive and find them.