Look at rent growth if you are primarily interested in cash flow.  

California prices are really unaffordable at the same time the state has consistently had outmigration of native residents for something like a decade and even negative population growth recently whereas Texas has grown substantially. 

They just don’t keep up with the growth appreciation rates of other properties in the same neighborhood or even the same building.

I think that the ability to get paid when you need to do either one of those is not talked about enough.

Fascination in one type of market has led me to another, real estate investing, and now I'm looking to leverage my ability with numbers in the REI space as well.

As long as you focus on areas with strong job growth and analyze the deal carefully, I think you will be in great shape. 

I have been exploring gigs and hustles to build capital in addition to my 9-5 towards a property, but the growth is not moving at the pace that I would like it to. 

Population and economic growth, strong tourism, proximity to other New England cities.

However, you want to be in the path of growth because appreciation will make you wealthy.

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