Check out this news release from October 2009 outlining a program outlining how home owners might rent back a home they are losing in foreclosure.

http://www.fanniemae.com/newsreleases/2009/4844.jhtml

The obvious question is "have you heard of anyone actually doing this?"  If this program has existed for almost two years, you would think that the regional real estate community would become aware of someone that has been able to use the program.

There are two major restraints right now for our real estate market; one is the lending standards are more stringent than they have been and second, consumer sentiment is negative.  Both probably will improve, but when?

From an objective point of view, we have a very good inventory of homes at affordable prices with interest rates very low.  Even for investors, this article about rising rents should be a great backdrop to investing in residential real estate.