Buy low and hold for the long-term.

The best opportunities arise when one is able to buy at a low price, so that over a period of five or ten years one's property has time to gain value allowing it's sale at a high price.

A good illustration of this gain-over-time is seen in an examination of property market activities in Florida across the last five years.

Three U.S. states -- California, Florida and Nevada -- saw home prices decline more than 12 percent over the two quarters previous to this report.  Seven of the 20 worst-performing markets in the United States are in Florida.

Even so, when one considers the home prices in those Florida markets over a 5-year period, one sees that property values continue to climb.

        Place                                                     Rank      Qtr.        5-Yr          Change

Port St. Lucie, FL                                             285     -21.95      -9.78        +33.58
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL                               284     -20.75      -7.22         +37.49
Ft. Lauderdale, Pompano Bch, Deerfield Bch    282     -18.11      -8.58        +49.87
Punta Gorda                                                   273     -16.50      -4.51        +33.42
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL                    275     -17.22      -5.66        +45.07

(Source: US Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight 2nd Quarter 2008 House Price Index, page 27. See http://www.ofheo.gov/media/pdf/2q08hpi.pdf ]

While most people are watching prices drop in the three hardest-hit states, property prices in several other states have been rising, and are continuing to rise in 12 states during the four quarters previous to this report period.

The greatest price appreciation between the second quarters of 2007 and 2008 were Oklahoma (4.9%), Wyoming (4.4%), South Dakota (3.8%), North Carolina (3.6%) and North Dakota (3.6%).