"Good times, bad times" is a lyric made famous by the rock group Led Zeppelin. It's not hard to see how the lyric applies to what has happened to most real estate markets in the world. After a long boom where real estate values rocketed to unsustainable highs, the markets plunged. While most countries were hit hard, Canada's slump was moderate in comparison. While the effects of the slump phase are newsworthy, what is often overlooked is that real estate historically has boom, slump and recovery stages, and it is the savvy investor who learns about and understands these phases who will be equipped with the knowledge to make practical and informed decisions about his portfolio. ? Kieran Trass is a leading expert on real estate cycles, and his views have often run contrary to the prophesying of national daily newspapers. Trass had made it his life mission to drill down into economics, population migration, employment levels, affordability of rental housing, real estate listings and other factors to provide a scientific basis to assessing current trends and where those trends are heading. The benefit of having such information at hand for the real estate investor is like having money in the bank. ? Don R. Campbell is a leading expert on residential real estate investment in Canada, and is president of Canada's #1 real estate investment network-REIN.