The public perception is that foreclosures mainly affect hardworking families who are hit with a payment reset or a trigger event such as a job loss.

Foreclosure rates have increased dramatically in the last year. Yet bankruptcy filings are much lower than they were before the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) went into effect.

The meltdown of the subprime mortgage industry, often associated with the lower end of the U.S. housing market, continues to spread upward, bringing uncertainty into the jumbo mortgage loan market (loans above $417,000).

The collapse of the subprime market has hit hedge funds hard. According to Anthony Sanders, professor of finance and real estate at the W. P. Carey School of Business, many hedge funds forgot due diligence when the real estate market was hottest, and are now stuck with bad paper.

"In real estate, if you keep yourself in front of long-term demographic trends, you will prosper," observes Christopher Cole, founder and chief executive of the Cole Companies, who received the Distinguished Achievement Award at the W. P. Carey undergraduate convocation recently.

CEOs' home purchases, stock sales and subsequent company performance management

Phoenix, now the fifth largest city in the United States, could be the poster child for metropolitan areas where a bursting residential housing bubble has created economic discord.

Since the turn of the millennium, real estate has become one of the fastest growing investment sectors, not just in the United States but globally as well. But as much as we would like to think otherwise, there's considerable risk involved in real estate investing.

Picture the U.S.