Interestingly, I live in my community (Marco Island) with my short term rentals and have for years.  

Then you may shop in that price range.Tip: check with your local credit union: they will consistently have better rates and often the underwriting of loans is done locally.Mike

@Bryan Cavellier, You can 1031 with any US property including Guam, the USVI and ...drum roll- The Northern Marianas Islands (go figure but I actually had a realtor from there in a class of mine recently) into any other US or one of those territories.  1031 is a federal statute so it's applied the same in all locals with just a few variations state to state at the state level. 

Digitize physical receipts for easy storage and use a consistent naming convention for easy sorting - 2024.03.25 Home Depot.Maintain proper records, such as contracts, settlement statements, and promissory notes.Additionally, you can track income and expenses consistently using software or spreadsheets.As you scale, if bookkeeping isn't fun, consider hiring a bookkeeper for a couple hundred bucks per month.

I am wondering if there is any market in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, or Washington DC that would "make sense" to house hack given my financial position? 

Just know there’s a lot of competition, so you’ll need to stay consistent.

Check with these guys, I live on Catalina Island which is High Fire Zone and they were able to help me.

The rents go up consistently every year which is very important for appreciation and increasing cashflow over time. 

These loan officers will be important resources if you are consistently executing on the business plans behind each loan they give you.

If the investor is looking for both appreciation and cash flow; they need to be looking at cities/markets with growth (population and jobs), along with a consistent decrease in crime (all over the past 2 decades).