Still at an affordability crisis, still on the verge of unemployment picking up, still on the verge of inflation superseding wage growth again. 

Also what is the population and growth in this area?

Population Growth: Target cities with a minimum 1.5% YoY growth over the past 20 years and populations exceeding 100,000.

I personally recommend looking into out of state investing in a market like Columbus OH for cash flowing deals that hit the 1% rule and have lots of appreciation due to the great macroeconomics - population growth, job growth, and major companies developing here (Meta, Intel, Amazon, Google, etc.).

Intel is a great example, who is building the largest chip manufacturing plant in the US right here, and it will be a $20 billion dollar investment that brings a few new thousand jobs.https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/2022/01/21/intel-ohio-building-computer-chip-factories-licking-county-jersey-township/9173472002/ Another example of economic growth is the upcoming Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Inpatient Hospital which is a 1.9million square foot hospital that will bring over 800 new beds and a thousand new jobs. https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/new-osu-hospital-expected-to-transform-health-careHere are a few more recent investments https://www.10tv.com/article/money/business/hydrogen-power-company-hyperion-bringing-700-jobs-to-columbus/530-25907aab-5517-4661-a9f3-d2ed2d5be6b0 https://news.wosu.org/news/2022-02-08/rumpke-to-build-50-million-recycling-facility-in-columbus Check out The Complete Guide to the Columbus, Ohio Real Estate Market which goes through the Columbus, Ohio market in depth and will give you a better scope of where the highest levels of growth are taking place and where to look to invest.  

States with landlord friendly laws, low property taxes, job and population growth, and low insurance premiums are all good places.

Specifically, there's job growth (Intel, Honda, Amazon, Nationwide, etc) and the population is growing (unlike Cleveland or Cincy).

As the market cooled in 2023, price growth slowed to 8.3%, and sales volume decreased by 15% from the 2021 highs.

I wouldn't get discouraged in investing in the Coachella Valley there is still a lot of growth currently just make sure to do the right homework.

People are doing it, so presumably it works.FWIW, I invested in Japan for a few years, but lack of rent growth, lack of appreciation, concerns about natural disasters, and just general lack of confidence in the J market led me to shift focus only to the US.