A lot of growth, lots of buyers, the prices were driven up and inventory down.There are other markets other than Indy and KC (I'm not a huge Midwest fan myself).

I have driven even street in my target areas, have thousands of dollars going out in direct mail every month, about 6-8 negotiators, a door knocking team and am targeting niche markets that you don't know about.

Welcome Mark A. I

driven by NYers? 

We've driven by properties but that is about all you can do as far as the actual property goes.  

I've driven around the city I want to buy in to determine which communities to watch for.

With that you should keep in mind that even though Huntsville does well (because it is so driven to expand geographically, it is actually the largest in the state by square mileage of city limits and only getting bigger and encircles Madison) that this does not mean your area will continue to.

CA residential is a more price appreciation driven market.

So yes I think the market in certain areas has been driven by large players... the article quoted also is kind of full of it..

Everything hinged on housing prices which was driven up by household debt, then wall street further leveraged these securities thus building the house of cards that would fall when the linchpin of ever rising housing prices stopped.Balance sheets of the household sector are still weak.