Great old(er) thread...absolutely agree with Joshua Dorkin and others.I've been a happy BP'er for a few months now and am amazed at those who swoop in like migrating birds, drop their...ad....and then take off, never to be seen again.

@Chris Penny you can bacially draw a "C" around okc to trace the migration of families for school districts.  

And since you've migrated to properties that "just need a little updating" you're REALLY competing with those owner-occupants that spend way too much time watching HGTV :-)But what's really missing from your post is scale.  

For instance: check out this video.I do think that in the next 3-5 years we will see a great migration of Brooklyn-esque types who can no longer afford Brooklyn, and are closing in on their 3rd child. 

Grant it- these are not newly listed properties, we migrate towards the longer days-on-market where competition is not steep.

The big migration will slow down.

Massive migration from Seattle etc. 

We stay away from "middle America" as macro data in job growth and population migration tends to favor the coasts and the south/southwest. 

also look up city data.com and usa.com for population migration and income data

Atlanta is great market to invest...Regarding your second question about what other cities are good...Amazon already research for us, they selected top 20 cities...We can filter this list further...Few of them are expensive cities like LA, Toronto, DC, NY, Boston, Northern Virginia & Newark.Recent trends of migration to Sun belt filter out northern cities like Chicago, Columbus, Philly & PittsburghRemaining choice...DenverDallasAustinNashvilleRaleighMiami