Also, my location is northeast of Springfield, Ma...on the NH border.

There are also several nice condo and townhouse communities near downtown and Castro Valley border.  

It borders on harassment and is such a nightmare I offered to buy another house for her to move to because she is as close to a perfect tenant as you can find.

I am still a newbie in the investing world so I cannot talk to the numbers or appreciation however I have lived in Yonkers for more than 20 years which borders Mt.

At that point, you are not risking or gambling, you are taking sure bets.

That being said, assuming you invest in CA while you live in CA your returns wont be as high but you will also have that good looking income and lifestyle should things take a turn.Bakersfield is a great market to invest in if you are looking at investing in CA because there is still good cash flow and if you look at some of my previous posts you can see there is growth here, but it really comes down to if you want to gamble and potentially make more income than you could have even with your job, or if you want to take the job and play it safe and increase your investments over time.  

We have Canadians calling us often for better deals south of the border (although the low CDN dollar has slowed that down right now).

I am so close to the border of South Carolina that I was planning on adding some properties located in SC to my portfolio over the next few years.  

I think that people are just gambling that the Lender just won't bother.Now, let's say you locked in a 30 year fix rate mortgage at 4%.Why would you take a chance of having to refi that beautiful Mortgage if the Lender calls the Loan?

@Wayne Brooks simple advice, seems like a pretty bad gamble given the bottom line!