As bad as the debt is and the resulting devaluation of the dollar, money is backed by hopeium.

The Northwest Side Preservation Ordinance, affecting certain Chicago neighborhoods, punishes owners of affordable housing, devalues their property, and makes it harder to invest in neighborhood housing.

I added RE into the portfolio as a way to really stash cash; there's an inflection point of a lack of homebuilding, laws against it, a devaluing dollar, and population not necessarily growth but saturation.

Some are in secrecy because the owners don’t want it publicly known since it could devalue the business.  

The value of my investments is driven by rental income not arbitrary real estate values where as renters in a SFH devalue a property.  

Instead of, or in conjunction with, other savings vehicles, consider just ONE rental property and all the benefits of the right property will offer over time: Cash Flow, Amortized Equity, Passive Activity Losses that "may" lower your W2 tax bill if you have less than $125k earnings, benefits of inflation in that not only are tenants paying down mortgage debt and rents increase over time, the debt itself becomes devalued, costing less in actual dollar terms.

Although short sales are uncommon here due to the very hot housing market, the unskilled repairs and additions have significantly de-valued the home.  

ERGO you are in foreclosure in the first place.GFC meltdown saw values drop 20 to over 60% in certain markets  .. your 70% LTV loan was underwater right out of the gate.So to answer your questions.In General... you have a foreclsoureyour value is 10% less than it was when you made the loan.. reason flipper butchered the job ... and again depending on state it could take 1 to 3 years to actually foreclose and of course your not getting any payments.. so your interest is wiped out. your cost of doing the foreclosure again state specific.. and I have never met a defaulted borrower that paid the property tax's  ( and again state specific how bad this will be).. you have selling costs usually 8% and you normally have to spend money getting the home marketable I have never met a defaulted borrower who left a home in perfect shape.So you add 10% market devaluation  8% for sales costs.. 3% for foreclosure costs.. 2% for back taxforce placed insurance and utls.. and depending on the condition of the home 5 to 10% for rehab .. you can see how this eats into your 30%  .. then take states Like were i live and properly filed mechanics liens are super liens they jump ahead of your mortgage.. this can be thousands up to 100 thousands if your flipper totally screwed the subs. 

But, that takes on all the hundred types of Investment Risk, including the Devaluation of the Currency.

This is probably a cleaner approach, but I worry that a sale this low is going to devalue the neighborhood.