that would be consider the best out of this undesired situation.

Multiple homes- spreads out the risk (what if that one neghborhood suddenly becomes undesirably) in the marketOne home- lessons risk of extra issues cropping up (only 1 rough to be worse than you thought only 1 home to find termites in after closing etc).IMO if the one home is in a high demand area I'd probably lean towards just doing the one.

If the commute is too long or the area undesirable this will be the first place to drop in price during the next inevitable down-turn. 

You don't want it too high or you won't get calls and you don't want it too low or you will get undesirable calls.When a property gets stale, it's often times helpful to pull it off the market for a week, reorder the photos and freshen then republish it so the ad looks new and fresh.

It would be impossible to weed out all the undesireables in RE and Wannabe Finenciers.

New Orleans, Metairie, Hammond and Baton Rouge are my peripheral cities.

I may be a little too eager but when you're telling me Port Harris and Mott Haven above Brucker seem undesirable for a regular home buyer, you are just growing my appetite :) Perfect.

Typically, properties that are closer to downtown are also easier to rent and being near the airport is undesirable, depending how close you are. 

Even if they do appreciate for a while with the overall market they will be hit hard during recessions, and last to re-appreciate due to the undesireability of the longer commute times.I think your idea of a lakefront place makes a lot of sense versus buying tract homes.  

So, is it better to buy on a lake than in an undesirable far out location with a hellofa commute?