The Fed manipulating rates and artificially keeping rates low has probably had a lot to do with propping up the real estate market.  

We've had too long a period with artificially low rates and people now believe that's what rates just should be.

- Median income (I use this as an indicator for the rental market -> Is it artificially inflated?)

Shut down the world economy that caused supply shocks at the same time you have government stimulus which artificially raised demand.

My background is in artificial intelligence research, and building high-throughput underwriting systems, and most recently I served as a founding engineer at a financial technology startup.I'm super excited to finally get into the RE space and would love to meet experienced folks in the field and learn the ropes.

I'm never impressed when I hear of artificial price inflation (market manipulation). 

For repairs and maintenance it might be artificially high or low based on events - so the trailing 12 month numbers would be helpful but you should also look to some online sources that will tell you approximately how much per door per year you should allow for all cap ex - repairs/maintenance and bigger stuff.  

The pool pics look artificial.

No, gurus have always been everywhere now it has just been augmented by the Internet (Social Media) AND more sinisterly by artificial intelligence (AI), which now knows that you are interested in #RealEstate so it will continue to bombard you with Real Estate related content including guru marketing.

Inflation is loved by big debtors (US Government) and abhorred by savers.The Federal reserve keeps interest rates artificially low to benefit the drunken sailors (US Government).