I am definitely trying to accelerate my path to financial independence so I'm all about the active investing right now and I think my first step will be to house hack to offset the astronomical housing costs while also building equity.

After speaking with the neighbor who performed the landscaping around the two houses, he told me that in December 2019, around the time of the moisture repair, the previous homeowners decided not to go forth with French drain installation as the cost would be astronomical to remove the trees, stumps and root systems.

But there's a little question of are you lending to yourself and would that be perceived you actually trying to get profit out of the 1031.If the note is filed and recorded properly then the chances of that even being examined are astronomically miniscule. 

So don't be surprised when you receive quotes from contractors that seem astronomically high to you--our costs have gone up dramatically for material and good labor!

Deferred maintenance was usually astronomical even once you factor in the incredibly conservative engineering reports in the reserve fund study.

Some insights can be found from Argentina (https://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Latin-America/Argentina/Price-History) which is going through a terrible economic crises with astronomical inflation paired with a crash and the worst financial year they've experienced in history in 2019 (non-covid related). 

Another contractor upgraded our plumbing and then had an astronomical price to do the electrical upgrades that were not included in his estimate.

@Russell Brazil I don't see much in those areas you described and clearly don't know what they base significant differences on but in general, all over the city the areas are astronomically different.

The financial aspect of renting rooms is astronomical to your wealth and I would not let these small scares shy you away.

Property in Australia is astronomically high.