LOS ANGELES — While many would-be home buyers have been scared off by dire housing market predictions, Debbie Harris has taken out mortgages on five homes in the past 18 months.

She's among a growing number of fledgling real-estate investors around the country using equity earned in overheated housing markets to stake their claims to rental property in more-affordable areas.

The investors say there's no reason to fear the housing market will collapse — although each purchase increases their risks of losing money if prices do take a dive.

"My husband believes there is," said Harris, who runs two cell phone stores. "He's thinking five houses is enough. I'm thinking, no, it's not."

Indeed, investors like Harris believe their investments are secure because people will always need places to rent — especially as homes become less affordable. But some observers say their zeal to scoop up property in emerging areas is helping drive prices there even higher.

Mike House, who hosts meetings for a real-estate investor group in Las Vegas, thinks a number of markets have already soared out of reach for those looking to spend less than $200,000.

"Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas ... are all unaffordable now, theoretically," he said.

Many of the new investors got into the market after watching their stock portfolios stall as their home equity soared. These days, they're turning to friends, seminars and real-estate clubs for advice on buying property for long-term rental income.

More gutsy investors are "flipping" homes for profit through quick sales.

A survey by the National Association of Realtors determined that 23 percent of all homes purchased last year were acquired as investment properties.

On the East Coast, investors in New York and Boston are grabbing real estate in growing areas of Florida and the Carolinas, said Lawrence Yun, senior economist for the association.

Californians, meanwhile, are buying in Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Colorado, among other markets.

"California is filling up with equity, and now it's spilling over into these other areas," said James Joseph, owner of Century 21 Grisham-Joseph in La Mirada, a Los Angeles suburb.

The investments have surged even as economists and analysts have raised concerns about the housing market.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has said some of the nation's pricier markets are experiencing a "froth." Economists at the University of California-Los Angeles have warned the national housing market is due to slow because prices have become unsustainably high.

It's already happening in California, where some of the pricier markets have cooled significantly this year.

The rate of appreciation for homes in San Diego County has slowed every month since May. It was 2.1 percent in August — when the median price was $493,000 — a far cry from the double-digit annual percentage increases enjoyed by homeowners there in recent years.

Long-term investors face the risks that short-term investors do if they find they must unload their properties during a down cycle in the market.

Still, in the Las Vegas area, the median home price has climbed to $275,000 — an 18.5 percent hike over the previous year. The value of some new homes there doubled from the time construction began until they were ready to be occupied.

Around Phoenix, the median home price jumped 34.2 percent to $229,500 in the past year.

Those prices seem like a steal compared to the $494,000 cost of a median-priced home in Los Angeles County. In the nine-county area around San Francisco, that figure stands at $619,000.