The ideal location for your first investment often depends on a combination of factors like budget, market growth, and your personal goals.

Make sure we're accounting for the appreciation, cost of the sale, cost of the purchase and one of my favorite factors, the risk.

Look into any and all factors you can think of regarding those areas so that if/when you decide to research other markets, you know what information to look for. 

Another factor I considered is that the role will help me understand RE markets better and be looking at a lot of deals.

The biggest determining factors for STRs in the area are purchase or build price (and associated mortgage) vs rental expectations, that will help you determine net cash flow.

All of which may factor in. 

I know there is a huge shortage of housing and that has driven up price in the past couple years (along with other factors such as the pandemic, population growth, etc) so, I see listings for 2br-1bth for up to 2200 on places like Zillow, Redfin, etc.  

That is something that is growing due to the limitations of STR.MTR is something that will help you but you will have to be a bit flexible in the times that you are planning to come in.Management is cheaper than STR, but you have to consider other factors such as close to places where those MTR are in need.

@Gustavo Delgado Tax Saving is one of the factors people consider while investing in RE.

There are markets that have built in "gotchas" like the rising cost of insurance in coastal FL, regulations in much of the west coast states and property taxes in Texas; however, the deal itself is the most critical factor.