Well the year has not come to an end yet, so lets hope for the best. But stable prices are good for the crypto too as you said and we should start to mass adopt. This will be good for crypto in the future.

Yes, there is still room for improvement in terms of value. With more advanced and polished blockchain the value can be further increased.

Localbitcoins could be a reliable option due to its inception of KYC. Coinbase is a well secured exchange though. And even if you have issues with that, just move around your coins in a hardware wallet.