In the next year, Blue Oval is about to provide 6,000 jobs from the manufacturer alone, and these are just a few of the companies feeding into the surplus of job opportunities ( and therefore tenants )  in the city. 

I'd suggest Ibonds, treasuries, and blue chip stocks with a good dividend.

Long term buy and hold RE in good locations is probably one of the lowest risk investment vehicles IMO, similar to blue chip aristocrat stocks except even less risky because even long-established companies can go out of business but real estate very, very rarely ever goes to zero. 

With a mix of college students, medical professionals, and blue-collar workers, the rental market stays pretty steady.

Blue Ridge Ga is also an amazing  market that is growing extremely fast and I have invested there myself and helped about 50 others get great properties.  

I go a little more blue collar outside of the city and can get 20% 

I'm in Los Angeles, and the most I can pay on flips is typically 60-65%.You want to get recently sold comps to value the property, it's the best way to be sure of the value.

In particular Overland Park, Olathe, Lee's Summit, Blue Springs and North Kansas City.

Greetings from Los Angeles, CA!

Living in the Los Angeles area sounds somewhat similar to what you experienced with cost of homes etc. thank you for writing this up!