I live in Washington DC metro area and am interested in buy and hold of multi-family properties in secondary and tertiary markets in my broader region, including Carolina's in the south and Pennsylvania in the North, as well Chicago. 

As some of the others have already mentioned, Florida certainly has some unique obstacles to be aware of.

I am looking at local real estate agent association boards, they have some good dataAlso for economic indicators look for local chamber of commerce and regional planning commission! 

- Jean Hi Jean, welcome to bigger pockets and the dmv real estate market, I strongly believe it can be one of the best markets in the country if you know where to invest, it definitely has its unique challenges being a low cash flow market but the appreciation here is very strong and prices in D.C. specifically have fallen so much recently you can pick things up at a 2019 or even in some cases 2018 prices (I just put an offer on something listed at arguably an 2017 price point.)

Or at a minimum, you can look into possibly lending that money short term for someone else's flip or something to grow that to more to be able to have more options.Most of the 10% down options are going to be local to my area and some to the region.

Lastly, I am in a unique situation where I spend 2 weeks in the area then am away for two weeks.

However, because my transition is still very much in flux I don't have any grasp on where I will end up location-wise (as well as other aspects like what my income will be, work schedule, travel requirements of the job - which is very possible - or even a definitive timeline) I cannot really look into the market of a certain region or make great projections. 

Quote from @Sara Campbell: Renting by the room has some unique challenges.

It has unique potential being an international boarder, a big part of it is an island, multiple express ways end here and big outside money lands in Port Huron before smaller areas surrounding Port Huron.

There are unique ways to frame the following 4 with different titles but at the core this is what you have available. 1.