Cundisk,

I think real estate is a tough call right now - but SRS is not. Unless you are day trading, or just holding it for a couple of days, it should avoided (like all the ultra ETFs). If you check any longer term chart, you will see that both SRS and its opposite URE are losers. For example, during the last 2 years, they are BOTH down about 90%! All the ultra ETFs lose value over time because they are rebalanced daily. Volatility just kills their value. The only way to make money in one of them is to be on the right side of a strong, low-volatility trend.

I've thought of shorting both of these at the same time, but that's not a slam dunk either. In a short time frame, one can go up much more than the other goes down, so that can be risky, too.

You could look into the new Case-Shiller instruments (I don't know what to call them) DMM & UMM. They're not very liquid, but I think they would be far better than SRS & URE if you want to play real estate.