Yes seeing the big picture and any issue from multiple angles is very relevant.
I personally have been frustrated many many times and wondered if higher returns or higher CAP rates exist elsewhere. Thus, I do ask frequently: what is better ? Where is it better ? Gold ? Public REITs ? Dividend paying stocks ? Investing in the US, the EU, UK or China ? Buying different asset classes like office, retail malls or storage ? Doing development instead of existing assets that will be merely enhanced and better managed ?
Time and time again I come to the conclusion that no perfect alternative exists and that every investment anywhere comes with pro's and con's such as more risk, more volatility, more cash requirements, more complex rules to follow or far more time invested.
So, if what you do works for you, keep at her, and fine tune and systemize it. In other words: when you jump over the fence to the allegedly greener side ensure the fence doesn't impale you. Fence jumping is costly, dangerous and it is not necessarily grass on the other side !
Therefore, more specifically
1) if you have a decent job - or even better a well paying public sector job with cushy hours and a safe pension - do not rush into real estate and quit your job after the first successful flip that made you $30,000 or the first JV.
2) if you had success buying several ( perhaps suited ) houses do not assume multi-family is better
3) if you had success buying multi-family in AB and now oil is low and a dumb government raids the once full coffers , do not assume that BC or ON are necessarily better investment places in the long term
4) if you had success in Canada and Canada now will have slower growth for the next few years do not assume TX, AZ or FL real estate is better
Keep a broad perspective and ask: why do so many folks move here from almost anywhere in the world ? If it is so bad here, why would they come ? Why is so much Asian money parked in Lower Mainland ? Traveling and looking at Canada from a non-Canadian perspective , an asset many immigrants have , is useful. Is green energy really the solution that will make oil worthless in a few years ? So yes oil might be low for another year or two, but in ten years ?
Five major themes affect real estate prices, perhaps more, and with that in mind keep your perspective that real estate for the next decade won't be quite as well performing as the last ten to twenty:
1) Interest rate falling
We had falling interest rates for almost twenty years pushing up values. While we should not expect rising rates anytime soon due to demographics the fall is essentially over and as such the wind at your back for real estate valuations .
2) Growth in China & other BRIC countries
While Brazil, Russia, India and China continue to grow their growth is far slower and thus, demand for resources which Canada has plenty of: oil, gas, coal, wood, uranium, copper, potash
3) Fiscally sound governments
Both AB and ON and now the federal government seem to be on a path of massive debt creation decoupled from fiscal sanity, unlike previous Liberal or Conservative governments in the 1990s to 2000s. This usually ends in higher taxes or reduced services after a time of partying and excessive spending. Our spending on public servants' salaries is particularly worrisome and tough to reverse, creating a new middle class c/o everyone else.
4) Continued Immigration
Canada still shines here but with a weaker economy we too, like in Europe, will see more opposition and division between those with skills and money and those with nothing.
5) Jobs & Ability to sell products the world needs
In a variation to point 2, Canada is by and large a decent enough producer of what Don Campbell calls the 4 Fs, i.e. products the world needs: fuel ( oil, gas, coal ) food ( almost any product from chickens to fish to eggs to milk to cheese to beef to grain to canola) fertilizer ( oil & potash ) forestry ( wood ) plus some decent manufactured goods like cars, buses , skidoo and planes plus all sorts of petrochemical products and oil & gas related gear. Some minor biotech and software even. Plus world class universities selling their education services at quintuple the price locals pay. Thus, a prosperous and basically self sufficient country - with plenty of water - the new export debate about to start as parched SE US starts to desalinate water at huge huge prices to keep their burgeoning population and food industry buoyant. Plenty of clean air, mountains, lakes and oceans too - for fishery to tourism to residences .
So overall still the cream of the crap - compared to the chaos, slow growth, QE, riots and overtaxation elsewhere in the world !
All in all real estate as well as other investments will yield a lower return going forward than in the past, but it helps to put what you do and invest in into context of the major themes.
Perspective helps, indeed !