Price, taxes, location and life style continue to be the big attractions.

Happy to share my excel model and my approach.

For me below is a short list, but bear in mind that my specific STR investment model is 'vacation house for free'. 

Holy hell a squatting problem so bad they hire security teams to go in military style?

squatters are in for a rude awaking .I posted about what Las Vegas has allowed to happen to squatters  IE using private security to boot them out military style.

We modeled out at various nightly price points using 50% occupancy and the property would likely provide a nice return.

@Noah Condon unfortunately you can't use the 1031 for a pure flipping model. 

Multifamily syndicators many pausing distributions so investors getting hosed on those for years and now they seek safety.What's awesome about investment credit grade tenant is what you model out is typically what you get.

definitely like Franklinton, could see east Franklinton developing into a young/middle-upper class mixed use neighborhood (Boston Seaport) and west Franklinton developing to a township-style neighborhood in the long term (Columbus stacks in Ready Player One)

It is common that you would have to do floodplain modeling but then be able to build your site as long as your finished floor is above the 100-yr floodplain elevation.