High unemployment could potentially be a factor driving NOI's of properties down, therefore decreasing your purchase price.

There are things that do factor in a flip.

One risk factor to be aware of is that you will basically have close to 0% equity in the property though in the event you should decide to liquidate you may have a hard time getting out of the deal unless you have a plan to force some appreciation quickly. 

So for instance if the seller is saying a 7 cap but then taxes go up 20,000 you are not buying a 7 cap but much lower with the higher cost factored in.

It's easy to blame mistakes in rehab estimates or estimating ARV for failure, as those are things that you can blame on outside factors ("My rehab estimate was off because of all the surprises I ran into when we opened up the walls!"

Whenever I just look at properties on the web for fun I always factor that in when im running the numbers.

There are ways you can defer the tax, such as doing a 1031 exchange and buying another investment property with the proceeds, but that's just a deferral of the tax; you do end up paying it eventually.It's probably not a deciding factor either  way, but it's another thing to be aware of. 

The final factor will be your personal preference.

Long term I would like a diversified portfolio that includes rentals as well.I have been exposed to real estate investing through various family members who have rental properties.

There are a lot of other factors that come in to play in this question.