First Property- Invest in Home State of NJ or Elsewhere?

[Brittany D.]

My boyfriend and I are looking to purchase a 2-3 family as our first property in the 250k range or lower. We would definitely do an FHA. We currently live in Rutherford, NJ, only 17 minutes from NYC. We are dying to get out of NJ, we're basically just looking for a change. Our combined savings is 50k. We're 26 and do not have anything holding us back from moving out of state. We know the NJ area well to invest in without hesitation. My questions are:

1. Do you suggest we stay and invest in our own backyard of NJ? 

2. We were looking into Cleveland, Indianapolis and Sacramento. However, we would like to know what other cities do you suggest that have a good job market as well? We are both at tech start-ups, but we are not limited to that industry. (We will be visiting the cities for a month before we would invest there) Any specific neighborhoods would be a great help, too. 

We definitely want this first property to set the tone for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. 

Apologies if this is very broad, we are kind of all over the map since we are so open to moving around. 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated from all of your expertise.