I currently live in Florida from Chicago but, will be moving to Western Massachusetts (Springfield) to peruse my dream of long term rental's real estate.

Two additional points to assist as you keep analyzing:  the 9k in taxes is based on an assessed amount of 469k so underwrite that your taxes will be going up exponentially - you can look up that info here: http://www.cookcountypropertyinfo.com/More of my own opinion, but Western is like an expressway there. 

@Justin Lentz The western Pennsylvania market is a good option for anyone investing in real estate.

@Paul Doty- Yes sir, it is close to 4 schools (KVCC, KCC, Kalamazoo College, and Western Michigan University) and two hospitals.

The business will focus on entitlement and development of commercial properties in the Western US. 

In fact, I rarely ever sell a small multi unit in the western suburbs that is over 400k! 

I am still getting rental interest in the western burbs.

For example, Retail Opportunity Investment Corporation (ROIC), which is a REIT composed of necessity-based neighborhood shopping centers, anchored by national or regional supermarkets and drug stores located in densely populated areas with strong income fundamentals across growth markets in the western U.S, has dropped by over 46% since the start of the year - down almost 20 percentage points more than the SPDR Retail Index ETF.

@Devon Suits I am in the near western suburbs of Chicago.

I'll give an example from my market, a mid-western town of about 160,000 people in a metro area of about 250,000.A "class B", 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage "starter" home will cost you about $110 - $150K and will rent between $800 - $1,300 / month.A "class C", 2 bed, 1-2 bath bungalo that might have a garage or not will cost around $30K - $60K and will rent between $500 - $800 / month.Right away you should notice the price disparity.