So first 4 family property owner here. I purchased last month and just got my first electric and gas bill. Let's just say wallet shock doesnt cover it. To break down the tldr, apparently I used 23.59 in gas last month...

But then I am realistically just taking inflation kick in the teeth.

My philosophy is that I can always go into credit card debt and pay 20%+ interest to them in an emergency, but I choose to have an emergency fund and pay the price of losing to inflation (~3%) instead.

There are exceptions, but they are grabbed up pretty quick or are at inflated prices.

for purposes of determining "attractiveness" I'm assuming money shoved into ETFs makes ~6%/year (inflation adjusted) and is significantly less hassle.

I'm not saying you can't make money there, plenty of people do, just dont count on your property taxes staying the same or slowing going up with inflation.

The market is highly inflated here (up to 7x Wichita prices), so i decided i would buy in Wichita for cash flow.Luckily i found a deal pretty quick, and I'd have to say it's exactly what I was looking for.

House values have even only kept up with yearly inflation over the last 100 years. 

Understanding it is a difficult market (Miami) to begin a real estate investing journey considering inflated housing prices, it’s where I currently work and I’m quite passionate about the city.

Prime rate is a tool the Fed manipulates based on their forecast for inflation and where it is headed.