I'd consider it a safe investment, if you can afford to hold for a while.That being said, your buy-in will be significantly (prohibitively) higher than most places in the US.

What if they couldn't afford that at that time? 

Unless I'm missing something, I can easily afford it but the problem might be getting the financing so I haven't looked into it yet.

I'm starting out my investing in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio because I've lived here for three years and I think I understand the market and its drivers, and prices continue to appreciate.I see real estate investing as a way to build a base of passive income to make sure I can take care of my family if their health or the economy fall on hard times. 

This is important to determine the health of the business versus a percentage of the rent they pay you.As an example a business doing 1,000,000 in sales you generally do not want to see more than 10% going to rent or 100,000.4.

But you can still find something in that price range, just maybe not close in.The problem that I see with your plan is that it may be difficult to figure out how much you can afford to pay each month for a mortgage without knowing how much you'll be making at your next job.  

The house is in a neighborhood that is still fairly affordable and transitioning.

Many BP users are smaller investors and not able to afford something as expensive as AF.

If you can't afford a months downtime, this isn't the game for you.

I've had the "I can't afford Hoboken/JC/Edgewater/Weehawken" conversation more times than I can count in the last 3 months, and natural gentrification in this instance will only lead inland.