The ROI in my experience is always higher in suburbs as long as they're close enough to public transportation and the city.

Little difference in the lot prep costs but what you might save in efficiency in the building process is often eaten up by transportation of the prebuilt structure to your lot.

Even people with a house full of furniture may want the decorations and some of the furniture.What you are offering to a potential buyer who is not an investor is a way for them to sell their furniture and avoid paying high transportation costs.  

Generally in the Pittsburgh rental market the trend is towards walkable areas with good access to public transportation.

Walkability, public transport, etc are other things that should be considered.

How's the transportation?

Braintree and Quincy offer proximity to the city and excellent transportation (red line), still with pretty good schools as well.In terms of MTRs, I recently interviewed Jessica Later on this subject in the Boston market.

For example: Clifton, Jersey City, Bloomfield, Newark, Montclair, etc are all very competitive since its has easy access to transportation to NYC.

You could keep on with adding more and more until your suitcases are so full that you are spending hundreds of extra dollars on transporting your luggage to and from your trip.

It depends on how many passengers you need to transport, what else you need to haul, how far you are driving, your budget, your personal preferences, and many other factors.