When the housing slowdown hit towards the end of the year, many began to worry about the prospect of another housing bust.

With the real estate market going so remarkably well over the past several years, particularly with so many “hot” markets growing in seemingly unstoppable ways, there began to worry that this growth was unsustainable. With a slowdown now in full force, some wondered...is this finally the tipping point?

Between domestic and international unrest, economic and governmental angst, real estate is something that seems to get lost in the shuffle. While the rest of the world seems to be in chaos, we can easily lose sight of the world of real estate—or we just assume that it is suffering along with everything else.

When we consider real estate investment, the important factors aren’t always home prices, interest rates, and realty data. While these things can provide insights, we can find a more rounded, telling picture when we look at the overall condition of a market. When we do a deep analysis of a market to determine whether or not it is worth bringing turnkey investment opportunities to our investors, for example, we look at a great many economic factors in our prospective markets.

The U.S. housing market is in a slump. 2019 is bringing with it a flurry of predictions and speculations, many of which have to do with the shifting environment. Are we due for a bubble burst? Unlikely. The conditions in which the housing market crashed in 2009 are wildly different than the conditions we're currently experiencing.

Looking back at 2018, we experienced a year of high expectations that largely did not disappoint. Markets continued to stabilize, economic promise grew along with property values, and the revitalization of cities nationwide provided opportunities and population growth.

There’s been considerable buzz lately in the real estate world about a nationwide housing slowdown. When we see words like this, people no doubt tend to get nervous. But is there anything, really, to worry about for real estate investors? What’s behind the slowdown, and who will really be affected by it all?