If you're only planning to live there temporarily (0-2 years), then you might want to find something where the numbers crunch much better.  

The BP calculators are a great tool to crunching the numbers before you buy to make sure you make a good purchase.  

You'll have dozens of cities you could make work, but comparing them all will be a huge task, and you'll never end up with a definitive right vs wrong by crunching numbers and population trends etc.  

Keep analyzing and crunching the number.

Thanks Jim,I've realized it's a number crunching game.  

The combination of my "number-crunching" skills and ability to aggregate data from all over the web (web scraping) can hopefully provide even more education to BP members ranging from market industry data such as region specific market appreciation or portfolio performance.I have not yet made my first real estate investment, but I believe with the help of BP, I can make it happen.  

I just have to get more info and crunch some numbers.

This is allows you to do most of the negotiation up front, without a time crunch, and will show the lenders you know what you are doing.

But  I feel your pain re: the time crunch of the 1031.  

I have been looking into investing closer to home as well, but the numbers simply do not crunch easily- it's very difficult to break even with rental income in the Lower Mainland area, never mind have positive cash flow.