Getting started / comparing & picking geographical area

[Sam Guba]

Hello all. I am 28. I have been working short term contracts that pay pretty well and last about 3-5 months all over the US for the past few years. I could take a permanent position but the idea of settling into my current profession for 40-50 hours/week for the next 40 years is soul crushing. I'm planning on settling down to a permanent home in the next 12 months and diversifying my sources of income. I would be much happier working my current job 1-3 days a week (earning ~$40/hour), which is realistic as I work in healthcare and per diem work is common, and supplementing that with income from other sources including real estate investments. I hope to begin with a simple house hack and expand from there. After bouncing around from place to place so much it seems difficult choose where I plan to stay for the foreseeable future. I know I want to be close to my family (Northeast USA) as my parents are aging and I want to be at least semi close by. But other than that I really don't have much tying me down to any specific location.

I am looking for any advice on what tools, data, metrics, websites, etc. people use to evaluate / know what markets or areas might be lucrative for real estate investing. Any advice for a young geographically unencumbered professional making good salary (~70k /year with 90k student loans down from 140k in 2 years)? All advice, related or not, is welcome.

Thanks.