Better to concentrate on decreasing expenses and saving for now. 

Real Estate values, nationally, have never decreased over any 10 years. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUSFocus on optimizing active income first.

"Limited supply due to tough zoning and restrictive permitting process, high construction costs, and expensive dirt, and population increases (guess AI hasn't gotten the memo that population has actually decreased)". 

Only five of the qualifying 25 local cities saw a population decrease, topped by Bee Cave (-2.7%).

Notice I say advertised and not going for because next, you will want to see how long these properties have been on the market and if they have decreased their rental asking amount.

I would at least recommend you have them shop a policy for you.One thing we did note is that with hail damage to roofs, they seem to be decreasing coverage/increasing deductibles on that if ever needed.

Good renovations done at purchase should decrease repair and vacancy cost. 

Do you believe mortgage rate will start to decrease?

A new owner with more capital can easily come in and decrease vacancy rates and increase supply to realize a 2-3x revenue.

You can find higher ROI (on paper) here and probably in other cities…but the probability of actually collecting rent significantly decreases.