This will help to diversity your risk.

The diversity and the way properties are spread out down in the bayou can make it impossible.

If you are looking for similar price points, San Antonio is a very diverse market.

I do think Detroit is moving on the upward trend you can tell by whats going on downtown, introduction of more flippers, and more diversity moving to areas I would have never thought would be populated again. 

This is because they are large metropolitan areas with diverse industries, attracting many people to work and live there, etc.Other cities such as Detroit, Houston, Dallas, .... also offer some interesting investment options as the rental yield can be higher (compared to some of the coastal cities) but then you may have to consider issues such as decline of population, less diverse industries, more land available,....  

The diverse economy creates a lot of areas of stable cash flow.

I would look at population growth and job diversity.  

@Jacob Hartman You may want to check out if the city has diverse employment vs. one big employer and how likely they are going to stay.  

The main thing is to have diversity so one thing happening cannot break you.Good luck to you both!

I want to thank all of you for taking the time to reach out and thoughtfully provide your input on this - and it looks like I got a diverse group of responders here!