the good thing about real estate is that its a tangible asset that does not waste and historically increases in value. As long as the world/local population continues to grow so will the value of your home. In miami alone there are 100k ppl +/- that immigrate EVERY month (this was a stat from NAR this time last year). As well, regardless of anyone's personal financial situation they still need a home, therefore a tenant or homebuyer is ALWAYS around the corner. Usually rents are fixed based upon market rents and a escalation in rents is usually contigent with commercial property with long term tenants. To me commercial is great!!! you find a long term tenant (usually a large commercial company ie mcdonalds) lock them in on a 10 year lease with 4-5% annual increases. By the time the lease is up they cant just pack up their bags and leave and lose their client base so they tend to stay. And oh yea with commercial foreclosures you could evict the tenant and take over the biz!!! It has happened