I understand the elected officials are corrupt, the taxes are fairly high, the city has a good deal of murders occurring on a daily basis but in my experience I have found that most of the information published online and talked about on the news channels seem to be a few months behind what is actually happening on the ground.This interests me because I am a real estate agent currently in the Washington DC area and the Chicago market at this current time is similar to Washington DC in the mid-2000's before it went gangbusters and everyone was buying up places in the "nicer" parts of the city.What eventually happened was investors moved out of the safe zones and moved into the hood, the most surprising neighborhood being Trinidad, Trinidad was so bad the police blocked off the neighborhood and made you present ID at checkpoints to get into the neighborhood, true story. 5 short years later people are spending 800k on four level renovated rowhomes that are walking distance to shops and restaurants.I understand the Chicago economy is not held up by the government like the Washington DC market is, but, all the realtor blogs I've read over the last two weeks seem to indicate that certain neighborhoods are "hot" and homes are selling quickly (Avondale, Portage Park, Humboldt Park, Bucktown, Wicker Park...etc), is this still the case?

The economy would be considered flat amongst all standards.

The economy of scales works better with larger properties...So bottom line definitely look for a partner and think larger or just invest passively into someone syndication deal.

War is a driving factor in the American economy.

(It was actually his idea to sell my SFH for something better and to stop buying in Auburn after this next deal in case something happens to the economy there...not having your eggs all in one basket type of thing.)My SFH is paid for and my duplexes all rent great and cash flow, so while I'm not a genius at this whole real estate thing, I've got good folks helping and I'm doing alright for myself.Who else is new on BP? 

There is definitely more in favor for US REIs, but there are successful people in Canada just need to be more stringent on your own end of things and on the upside we do have a relatively stable real estate economy. 

What are local and TK economies like?

Because of economy and job growth.

Then I pick 3 states that interest me most (this could be based on the economies, resources I have tied over there, etc.).Hopefully that helps.

in countries without an established mortgage access people tend to either rent all their live or stay in a family home forever whether they'd like to move or not.To those of us who remember 13 and 14 percent mortgages, your complaints sound like not only from someone who does not understand interest, but also someone who has no understanding of how economy really works and thinks he is 'owed' his 'rights'.