No wonder, since you are in Bay Area ...

I personally won't invest in RE in that place too :-)

I got my three properties in 12/2008, 5/2009 and 4/2010, all through short-sales, and each is generating $2,000+/month cash flow right now. I am still waiting for another short-sale property at this point.

But even from a regular sale, at this interest rate, I can easily find properties that generate at least $1,000/month cash flow ...

Of course, I need to put in quite some time and energy in managing these properties. My estimate is that I spend 40 hours per month on average on RE management. But hey, no pain no gain :-)

I think you are younger than I, so allow me to give you some advice: investing in stock market is fun and addictive (I had my share before ...), but will it make you rich? I am not talking about a couple of hundred or even thousand dollars here and there, I mean the kind of money that enables you to quit day-job ... I'd say very unlikely. Only two kinds of people make real money in stocks: either very talented or very luckly and I sincerely hope you are one of those few people.