I'm wanting to enclose the porch so that it can be used as a functional room.  

Yes I think it is very likely that the previous owners enclosed the porch to create a larger house. 

Economy is built on transportation and distribution and is built around the 2nd largest cargo airport in the world.

How about using a bicycle for transportation, building your own home using stone from your land ala Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, "Your Money or Your Life".

If the bad area is convenient to expressways, public transportation, and vital services and adjoins a much nicer area, the prospects for improvement sooner rather than later are much better.

I'm seeing homes $1500-$1600 month for a 4BR 2BA 1yr lease, one bathroom in horrible shape, never is painted, AC units broken and not fixed, and one of the bedrooms is actually a former dining room connected to a living room, just enclosed with a big piece of drywall, no priming/sanding necessary.

@Teresa F. he feels that the place isn't well insulated for the winter but as i stated I recently updated the windows last year December and the location is in a quiet suburb area with close proximity to transportation, groceries, and shopping.

You should expect that, at the very least, the house should have a new breaker box, all exposed junctions should be rewired and enclosed, GFCI should be installed in all wet areas, and every open ground in the home should be resolved. 

Market rate would be about $1600-$2,000 depending on condition.  2nd floor is old and run down looking, but overall ok.  2nd floor has an enclosed porch that is supported on metal beams but looks like it needs to be totally fixed, peeling paint, torn screens, rotting floor boards. 

Each side was originally 2 bedrooms and the seller converted enclosed porches to bedrooms to make it 3-bedrooms on each side.